Samsung Electronics to cancel $2.11 billion worth of own shares

Samsung Electronics (005930.KS), opens new tab has decided to cancel 3.05 trillion won ($2.11 billion) worth of its own shares that it had acquired previously, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Samsung also said in a separate regulatory filing it would acquire 2.7 trillion won worth of its own common shares, and 304 billion won worth of other shares, between Feb 19 and May 16 this year to raise shareholder value and benefit its employees.

The company said in November last year it planned to buy back shares worth 10 trillion won over a one-year period after its share price underperformed rivals such as SK Hynix (000660.KS), opens new tab, marking the first time the tech giant had decided to buy back shares since 2017.

On January 31, Samsung Electronics (005930.KS), opens new tab warned of sluggish sales of its artificial intelligence chips in the current quarter due to U.S. export restrictions to China, and as it worked towards launching an improved version of its high-end chips.

Advanced chips used for AI have been the bright spot in the weak memory chip market, but rival SK Hynix (000660.KS), opens new tab is Nvidia’s (NVDA.O), opens new tab main supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips used in AI graphics processing units (GPUs), whereas Samsung has struggled to meet Nvidia’s requirements.

The U.S. in December also launched a fresh crackdown on China’s semiconductor industry, including restricting HBM chip sales.

Samsung, which relied on Chinese customers for about 20% of HBM sales, according to analysts, was expected to be hit much harder than its peers.