$16 Billion Vanished: Why Korea’s Biggest Companies Are Burning Their Own Shares

South Korea’s largest listed companies sharply increased share cancellations last year, with total treasury stock retirements reaching nearly 21 trillion won (about $16 billion), according to a report released Tuesday by corporate data tracker CEO Score.

The study analyzed 479 companies among the top 500 by market capitalization, excluding newly listed firms. It found that 80 companies retired a combined 20.9955 trillion won worth of treasury shares in 2025.

Samsung Electronics led all companies, canceling 3.0487 trillion won worth of its own shares—14.5% of the total amount retired.

Shipping firm HMM followed, canceling 2.1432 trillion won worth of shares it had repurchased entirely for shareholder value enhancement.

Korea Zinc, currently involved in a management control dispute, also retired 1.8156 trillion won worth of previously acquired shares.

Other major companies with large-scale share cancellations included Meritz Financial Group (1.5517 trillion won), KB Financial Group (1.02 trillion won), Samsung C&T (932.2 billion won), KT&G (926.3 billion won), and Hyundai Motor (916.0 billion won).

During the same period, 108 companies disposed of treasury shares totaling 3.1273 trillion won. Of this amount, 64.7%—or 2.0245 trillion won—was used for employee compensation. Hyundai Motor disposed of the largest amount for this purpose at 530.2 billion won, followed by Samsung Electronics (342.9 billion won) and SK hynix (307.6 billion won).

Treasury share sales for financing purposes reached 729.5 billion won. Lotte Holdings sold 147.7 billion won worth of treasury shares to Lotte Property & Development to improve its financial structure.

A total of 102 companies acquired treasury shares last year, amounting to approximately 21 trillion won. Samsung Electronics again ranked first with 8.1884 trillion won, followed by HMM (2.1432 trillion won), KB Financial Group (1.48 trillion won), Meritz Financial Group (1.3173 trillion won), and Shinhan Financial Group (1.25 trillion won).

In terms of treasury share holdings, Shinyoung Securities posted the highest ratio at 51.23%, followed by Bookook Securities (42.73%), Hanssem (29.46%), and SNT Dynamics (28.94%).

CEO Score said the trend reflects companies preparing for a proposed third revision of the Commercial Act, which would mandate the cancellation of treasury shares.