Samsung Electronics announced on Thursday its board approved plans to cancel the company’s all of existing and new treasury shares worth 49.3 trillion won ($43.35 billion) in total to enhance sustainable long-term value for shareholders.

“The strong balance sheet and the increase in cash holdings of the company have reduced the need to hold treasury shares, which had been retained to use as a financial resource, including for M&A transactions and securing talented professionals,” the company said in a statement.

The news overwhelmed its earlier announcement to forego the idea of breaking up the company into holding and business entity. Shares of Samsung Electronics ended Thursday at a new historic high of 2,192,000 won, up 52,000 won or 2.43 percent from the previous session.

Of the treasury shares to be canceled, the company currently holds 17,981,686 of common shares (12.9 percent of outstanding common stock) and 3,229,693 of preferred shares (15.9 percent of outstanding preferred stock) in treasury shareholding worth 40 trillion won under the current market value. The remainder will be bought up and canceled this year, a plan announced early this year. It already purchased and canceled 1.02 million common shares and 255,000 preferred shares on April 12.

Samsung Electronics plans to cancel the existing shares in two stages to limit the impact on the financial market. The first stage will cancel 50 percent of the holding, or about 9 million common shares and about 1.6 million preferred shares, and the remainder will be canceled after the board’s approval in 2018.

By Lee Dong-in

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