Last Year, Listed Companies' Treasury Stock Cancellation Increased by 33%... 900 Billion Won Treasury Stock Acquisition, Celltrion Largest

CEO Score, Survey on Domestic Listed Companies' Treasury Stock Acquisition and Disposal Status
Meritz Financial Group, KB Financial, and Kia Also Acquired Over 500 Billion Won

Last year, the scale of treasury stock cancellations by domestic listed companies increased by 33% compared to the previous year. This means that the value of shares held by existing shareholders rises as the amount of treasury stock cancellation increases.

On the 24th, the Corporate Data Research Institute CEO Score announced the results of a survey on domestic listed companies that submitted disclosures on treasury stock acquisition and disposal from 2021 to 2023.

Last year, the amount spent by listed companies on treasury stock acquisition was KRW 8.3519 trillion, a 39% increase from the previous year. The amount spent on treasury stock cancellation increased by 33.3% to KRW 4.7626 trillion compared to the previous year.

Over the past three years, the scale of treasury stock acquisition and cancellation by listed companies has steadily increased. The number of companies acquiring treasury stock decreased by 54, from 436 in 2022 to 382 in 2023, but the number of companies canceling treasury stock increased by 29, from 66 in 2022 to 95 in 2023.

The total amount of treasury stock disposal by listed companies, including cancellations, was KRW 7.3132 trillion last year, down 8.0% from KRW 7.9521 trillion the previous year. CEO Score stated, "This appears to be due to a decrease in disposals for business partnership purposes."

Last year, the largest treasury stock disposal was by GS Retail, amounting to KRW 30 billion. This was smaller in scale compared to the 2022 cross-shareholding exchanges between Hyundai Motor-KT (KRW 445.6 billion), Hyundai Mobis-KT (KRW 300.3 billion), and LG Chem-Korea Zinc (KRW 257.6 billion).

Incheon Songdo Celltrion Plant 2 exterior view. / Incheon - Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

The company with the highest treasury stock acquisition amount among listed companies last year was Celltrion. Celltrion acquired treasury stock worth KRW 253.3 billion in 2022. Over two years, it acquired treasury stock worth KRW 1.1393 trillion.

Following were Meritz Financial Group (KRW 670.6 billion), KB Financial Group (KRW 571.7 billion), Kia (KRW 500 billion), Shinhan Financial Group (KRW 485.9 billion), Celltrion Healthcare (KRW 379.2 billion), Hyundai Mobis (KRW 302.9 billion), KT&G (KRW 302.6 billion), SK Telecom (KRW 301.3 billion), and KT (KRW 300.2 billion).

The number of listed companies acquiring more than KRW 300 billion in treasury stock increased from 2 in 2022 to 10 last year.

Expanding the scope to the past three years, the treasury stock acquisition amounts were led by Celltrion (KRW 1.1393 trillion), KT&G (KRW 1.0077 trillion), Meritz Financial Group (KRW 977.7 billion), Hyundai Mobis (KRW 888.2 billion), and Shinhan Financial Group (KRW 785.9 billion).

The listed company with the highest treasury stock disposal amount last year was Hyundai Motor Company, with KRW 601.6 billion. The purposes were cancellation (KRW 315.4 billion) and employee compensation (KRW 286.2 billion). Hyundai Motor also disposed of KRW 655.7 billion of treasury stock in 2022 for business partnerships (KRW 445.6 billion) and employee compensation (KRW 210.1 billion). It disposed of more than KRW 600 billion in treasury stock for two consecutive years.

Following were SK Innovation (KRW 544.1 billion), Naver (KRW 423 billion), Shinhan Financial Group (KRW 385.9 billion), Kia (KRW 385.3 billion), Meritz Securities (KRW 384.7 billion), KT&G (KRW 302.6 billion), and Meritz Financial Group (KRW 300.1 billion).

Over the past three years, SK Telecom disposed of a total of KRW 2.198 trillion in treasury stock, including KRW 1.966 trillion in cancellations in 2021. This was the largest scale among listed companies.

The listed company with the largest treasury stock cancellation amount last year was Shinhan Financial Group (KRW 385.9 billion). Following the cancellation of KRW 300 billion in treasury stock in 2022, Shinhan Financial Group carried out large-scale treasury stock cancellations for two consecutive years.

Among the top 20 companies in treasury stock cancellation amounts last year, five were financial holding companies (Shinhan Financial Group, Meritz Financial Group, KB Financial Group, Hana Financial Group, and Woori Financial Group).

Over the past three years, the listed company with the largest treasury stock cancellation amount was SK Telecom with KRW 1.966 trillion. Following were Shinhan Financial Group (KRW 685.9 billion), KB Financial Group (KRW 571.7 billion), POSCO Holdings (KRW 567.5 billion), and Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance (KRW 458.6 billion).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.