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Samsung retail group pushes for extra shareholder meeting on buybacks
The campaign seeks approval for a 45.5 trillion won share buyback program and would require shareholder sign off on caps for performance bonuses tied to operating profit.
South Korean retail shareholder platform ACT said it has launched a campaign to call an extraordinary shareholders' meeting at Samsung Electronics, urging the company to buy back about $32 billion worth of shares and set limits on performance bonuses tied to operating profit. Reuters reports the group plans to collect electronic signatures from shareholders starting at 5 p.m. local time and to seek backing from the National Pension Service and domestic and overseas asset managers to reach the 3% ownership threshold needed to call the meeting.
According to Reuters, ACT said the push follows a decline in Samsung shares, which it said are down more than one third since reaching record highs in June, despite the AI boom. The platform attributed the selloff to deleveraging and renewed skepticism about how durable AI infrastructure spending will be.
ACT said the proposed meeting would consider approval of a 45.5 trillion won, or about $31.79 billion, share buyback program. It also plans a second proposal to require shareholder approval for an upper limit on performance bonuses tied to the company's operating profit.
Reuters reports ACT argued that the company’s bonus rules should not be set solely by the board, citing Samsung’s May wage deal that allocated 10.5% of operating profit for special bonuses for chip division employees and could translate into very large payouts over a decade. The platform framed its effort as a broader capital markets question about how ownership and control are exercised, saying retail shareholders act as both supporters and critics depending on performance.