Samsung family members sell W2.7tr worth of shares in group units in block deal

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, former Samsung Museum of Art Leeum Director Hong Ra-hee, and Samsung Welfare Foundation Chairman Lee Seo-hyun attend the third Anniversary Memorial Concert for former chairman Lee Kun-hee held at the Samsung Electronics Human Resources Development Center Concert Hall in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province on Oct. 19 last year. (Samsung Electronics)

Three members of Samsung Group's founding family have sold their shares totaling 2.7 trillion won ($2 billion) in group affiliates, including Samsung Electronics, in an apparent bid to pay inheritance taxes.

Samsung Electronics said in a regulatory filing Monday that Hong Ra-hee, the mother of Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, and her two daughters -- Hotel Shilla Co. CEO Lee Boo-jin and Lee Seo-hyun, chief of the Samsung Welfare Foundation have unloaded a combined 29.8 million shares worth 2.17 trillion won in the company.

Their holdings were sold at 72,717 won per share in a block deal on Thursday last week resulting in their stakes in Samsung Electronics slipping to 1.45 percent, 0.78 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively.

Other group affiliates, including Samsung C&T, Samsung SDS and Samsung Life Insurance, also said in a regulatory filing that Boo-jin unloaded 0.65 percent, 1.95 percent and 1.16 percent of her stakes in the three companies the same day.

The block sale is widely seen as aimed at paying inheritance taxes totaling 12 trillion won following the death of late Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee in October 2020.

Since his death, the owner group's family members have been paying their inheritance taxes in installments over a five-year span that started in April 2021.