(Bloomberg) — A $1.1 billion block trade in Samsung Electronics Co.’s shares added to a series of such deals seen this week across Asia amid a drop in equity-market volatility.
About 19.9 million Samsung Electronics 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. A member or members of the founding Lee family were the sellers, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Samsung block — the biggest such offering in South Korea since 2018 based on Bloomberg-compiled data — follows similar deals in Tokyo, Mumbai and Singapore since Monday. The pickup in share sales by firms or existing holders is part of a global trend as stock markets staged a rebound last week after a five-week selloff sparked by concerns over the war in Ukraine and rising U.S. interest rates.
The CBOE Volatility Index has fallen to its lowest level since early February after earlier this month surging to its highest in more than a year. While initial public offerings take longer to recover during periods of high volatility, follow-on share sales are usually quick out of the gate to take advantage of short market windows.
The pick up in block trades is partly “due to the little bit of risk-on mood after the Fed rate increase, helped also by the softening tone on Chinese regulation,” said Ke Yan, head of research at DZT Research in Singapore. “If need to sell, don’t wait,” seems to be the thinking among shareholders, he said.
A member or members of Samsung’s 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. Kookmin Bank is the vendor for the shares, the terms of the deal showed.
READ: Samsung Heirs to Sell $1.8 Billion of Shares for Tax Bill (1)
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.
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 ended 1% lower on Thursday, versus a drop of just 0.2% for the benchmark Kospi Index.
“The increased float will definitely put pressure on the markets as investors will need to sell other stocks to buy the blocks,” said Brian Freitas, an Auckland-based analyst for independent research platform Smartkarma. “It could also spill over into reduced demand for upcoming IPOs.”
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