Samsung Life Insurance Co. Ltd said on Aug. 18 it would buy an additional 234 billion won ($211 million) worth of shares in Samsung Securities Co. Ltd from affiliate Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Co. Ltd as approved by a board of directors meeting. The company will buy 613,246 shares, or an 8.02 percent stake, from Samsung Fire and Marine Insurance.
Samsung Life said in a statement that it was boosting its stake in Samsung Securities to improve returns on assets under management and seek new investment opportunities in conjunction with its asset management companies.
The life insurer's stake in Samsung Securities would rise to 19.2 percent from 11.1 percent as a result of the transaction. Samsung Fire & Marine would not own any shares in Samsung Securities once the sale to Samsung Life is finalized.
Samsung Life also owns 15 percent of Samsung Fire & Marine.
Samsung Life is out to strengthen its control over other Samsung affiliates with the takeover of Samsung Fire and Marine’s stake in Samsung Securities. It will hold a 19.2 percent stake in Samsung Securities. The company is said to be preparing to be a financial holding company over the financial affiliates of Samsung Group.
Samsung Life will pay 38,200 won per share to take over shares held by Samsung Fire and Marine Insurance in Samsung Securities for a total of 234.3 billion won. In January, the company took over 43.39 million shares of Samsung Card from Samsung Electronics, equivalent to a 37.45 percent stake. In order to be a financial holding company, Samsung Life has to hold more than a 30 percent stake in a listed company and more than 50 percent in a non-listed firm and be a major shareholder. Samsung Life will be a holding company when it takes over the 10.91 percent stake held by Samsung Securities to meet the over 30 percent stake requirement.
Samsung Life already holds majority stakes in other key financial affiliates including Samsung Asset Management (98.7 percent), Samsung SRA Asset Management (100 percent), among others, with no problems expected. A key remaining task will be increasing its stake in Samsung Fire and Marine, which can be done by taking over 15.98 percent of its own shares from Samsung Fire and Marine.
Samsung Life Insurance Co., Ltd. is a Korea-based company specializing in the life insurance business.
The company mainly operates its businesses through five divisions: insurance, loan, corporate pension, fund and trust. Its insurance products include life insurance, guarantee insurance, pension insurance, savings insurance and others. It provides corporate pension systems for business customers. Its loan products include medium and long-term mortgage loans and credit loans to families and companies.
Its fund business division involves in the provision of asset management and consulting services. Its trust business division involves in the development of trust management products and provision of general financial planning services for asset management.
The company conducts its business within domestic market and to overseas market. On June 16, 2014, it sold its entire shares of Samsung C&T Corp., engaged in the construction and trading businesses.
Samsung Life announced consolidated earnings results for the second quarter and first half ended June 30, 2016. For the quarter, net profit of 329 billion won came in at 26 percent lower year-on-year, the company is still at a healthy level considering the high base of the second quarter of last year boosted by a large one-off tax refund.
For the first half, the company reported net profit attributable to shareholders increased by 73.2 percent year-on-year due to the one-off gain from the bargain purchase of Samsung Card shares recognized in the first quarter. Investment income grew by 1.1 trillion won compared to first half, 2015 to 4.4 trillion won.
In order to maximize corporate value, Samsung Life has made overseas investments in 12 locations in seven countries.
“In 2014, we established long-term visions to expand our overseas business to major areas by taking into consideration of market size and growth potential, along with efforts made for the normalization of existing business,” the company said.
Currently, it has joint ventures in Thailand and China, as well as operating representative offices and investment subsidiaries in the U.S., Japan, U.K., China, Vietnam and Myanmar.
_삼성생명 북경오피스 조감도.jpg)
A view of a 260-meter tall building being built by Samsung Life in Beijing.(Photos: Samsung Life)
_삼성생명 김창수.jpg)
