(Bloomberg) — The Lee family behind Samsung Electronics Co. were the sellers of a $1.1 billion block of shares in the South Korean firm, according to people familiar with the matter.
About 19.9 million shares were sold at 68,800 won each, a discount of about 2.4% to Wednesday’s closing price, according to the terms of the deal obtained by Bloomberg News. That makes it the biggest such offering in South Korea since 2018, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Kookmin Bank is the vendor for the shares, the terms showed.
A member or members of the founding family, whose patriarch Lee Kun-hee died in 2020, are selling to raise funds for the inheritance tax bill, one of the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. The inheritance tax levy was more than 12 trillion won ($9.8 billion).
A representative for Samsung Electronics declined to comment.
Hong Ra-hee, wife of the late Lee Kun-hee, signed a trust agreement with Kookmin Bank on Oct. 5 to dispose of 19.9 million shares, or a 0.33% stake, in Samsung, according to a filing that month.
READ: Samsung Heirs to Sell $1.8 Billion of Shares for Tax Bill (1)
The Samsung block comes as share sales by existing holders are picking up in South Korea and across Asia, as global equity-market volatility stoked by the war in Ukraine is subsiding.
Earlier this week, a holder of IT services firm Samsung SDS Co. raised almost $317 million through a block that triggered a slump in the stock to its lowest price since 2017. The seller was believed to be a Samsung founding family member seeking to pay inheritance tax, Maeil Business Newspaper reported, citing unnamed investment bank officials.
KB Securities Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are bookrunners for the Samsung Electronics deal.
Samsung shares were down 1% in early trading, versus a 0.9% drop in the benchmark Kospi Index.
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