SKT Decides to Cancel 2.6 Trillion KRW Worth of Treasury Shares

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Jo] SK Telecom announced on the 4th that it held a board meeting and decided to immediately cancel 8.69 million treasury shares worth approximately 2.6 trillion KRW (based on the previous day's closing price). This corresponds to virtually all of its existing treasury shares. The scheduled cancellation date is May 6.

The treasury shares SK Telecom is canceling this time amount to 10.8% of the total issued shares. This is the largest volume relative to total issued shares among treasury share cancellations by the four major domestic conglomerates, and the second largest in terms of amount, following Samsung Electronics' treasury share cancellation.

Treasury share cancellation is when a company cancels its own shares held, reducing the number of shares in circulation, which generally leads to an increase in the value of existing shares held by shareholders, acting as a positive factor for the stock price. Through this cancellation, SK Telecom's total issued shares will decrease from the existing 80.75 million shares to 72.06 million shares.

This treasury share cancellation is interpreted as SK Telecom's firm commitment to enhancing corporate value and shareholder value, following the announcement of the human division plan in April.

SK Telecom plans to utilize the remaining 900,000 treasury shares after cancellation for the 'Employee Shareholder Participation Program' and previously granted stock options on a mid- to long-term basis.

The Employee Shareholder Participation Program, implemented from this year, allows employees to receive a certain portion of their performance bonuses in company shares instead of cash; this year, it was implemented with a scale of 121,000 shares. SK Telecom plans to expand compensation programs using treasury shares.

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