Samsung Electronics May Buy Back Up to $65.2 Billion of Stock Over 3 Years

Samsung Electronics Co. may buy back as much as 90 trillion won ($65.2 billion) of its own stock over the next three years, according to industry officials. The purchases would be used to pay employees record stock-based bonuses following a semiconductor boom. Traders and industry officials say a buyback of that size could provide a strong tailwind for the shares as competition intensifies for the title of South Korea’s most valuable company.

Samsung plans to buy the shares in installments over three years as early as July, subject to board approval and other procedures, according to industry officials on June 24. The move would fund special management performance bonuses worth tens of trillions of won annually that were agreed in labor-management wage talks last month.

Samsung needs to begin phased purchases as early as next month if it wants to distribute this year’s bonus shares at the start of next year, industry officials said. The company’s earlier 10 trillion won buyback was carried out over six months. This time, annual purchases tied to bonus shares would total about 30 trillion won.

Samsung agreed in wage talks last month to pay employees in its Device Solutions, or DS, semiconductor division a special management bonus equal to 10.5% of operating profit. The company’s operating profit is forecast at about 350 trillion won this year, implying a bonus pool of 37 trillion won. The amount is projected to rise further in 2027 and 2028, bringing total bonuses over three years to 154 trillion won. After a 40% withholding tax, the net payout would come to 90 trillion won. Samsung also plans to give employees in its Device eXperience, or DX, division company shares worth 6 million won each.

Samsung will also need to buy additional treasury shares under its performance share unit, or PSU, program introduced in October 2025. The plan was adopted to strengthen employee accountability for medium- to long-term business performance.

Under the PSU structure, the number of shares awarded increases if the stock price on the evaluation date of Oct. 13, 2028, is higher than on the reference date of Oct. 15, 2025.

The stock was in the 80,000 won to 90,000 won range when the agreement was set, but has since risen to 310,000 won, about 3.5 times higher. Samsung decided to grant 200 shares each to staff at the employee and assistant manager levels, and 300 shares each to manager, deputy general manager and general manager-level employees, across its workforce of about 128,000.

Industry officials said the planned buyback would be unprecedented in scale and could have a sizable effect on a share price the company has been eager to support. Samsung bought back 30.7 trillion won of its own shares over the past decade to boost shareholder value. Buying three times that amount in just three years would almost certainly have a larger impact on the stock, they said.

Samsung has been closely watching its share price after losing the No. 1 market capitalization ranking to SK Hynix Inc. on June 22 for the first time in 25 years, according to industry officials. The two companies traded places during a sharp Kospi selloff a day earlier, and Samsung regained the top spot shortly after the open on June 22 as its shares rebounded more sharply.

Kang Kyung-ju, Hankyung.com reporter qurasoha@hankyung.com