Thursday, June 5th, 2014
SEOUL, KOREA - amsung Electronics has purchased a large chunk of shares in Samsung SDI and Cheil Industries. This is widely interpreted as a move to keep its stake in Samsung SDI from being diluted due to the merger with Cheil Industries. In a regulatory filing on June 3, Samsung Electronics said it bought 2.17 million shares of Samsung SDI at 344 billion won and 2.07 million shares of Cheil Industries at 143 billion won through block deals. In addition, the company acquired 2.45 million shares of Samsung SDI and Cheil Industries held by Samsung Card at 169 billion won.
Although Samsung Electronics currently owns a 20.4-percent stake in Samsung SDI, it will see its stake slide to 13.5 percent once Samsung SDI merges with Cheil Industries on July 1. With today's share acquisitions, Samsung Electronics could bring up the Samsung SDI stake to 19.6 percent.
Analysts predicted that the share price of Samsung SDI will rise further for the time being buoyed by the news of Samsung Everland IPO and Samsung Electronics' share purchases. The shareholding of Samsung Everland by Samsung SDI after the July 1 merger is about 8 percent.