A day after the pronouncement of its long-term strategy, an undisclosed insitutional shareholder of the South Korean multinational Samsung Electronics has reportedly raised around W377.5 billion ($356 million) from the sale of preference shares on Thursday.
The block order deal, which was originally pegged at $250 million, was later on upsized by 40% to about $350 million and closed to a final price of $356 million due to a strong surge in demand. Additionally, the price was fixed at the top of the range for a 6% discount at closing.
The strong demand came following the opportunity to play the price difference between Samsung's preference and ordinary shares. Its preference shares, which were historically traded at a discount between 25% and 45%, increased by 0.8% to W1.037 million. Although without voting rights, the preference shares and placement discounts combined is placed at a 34% discount to the oridnary shares.
Meanwhile, Samsung's ordinary shares dropped by 1% to W1.437 million, following dismay over the lower-than-expected 1% dividend yield target by the end of the year.
According to Bloomberg, 49 out of the 53 analysts who follow the Korean manufacturer gave a "buy" recommendation on the stock.
The deal which was projected to primarily appeal to hedge funds gained the strongest demand among global long only investors and domestic institutions instead. According to reports, the block trade attracted over 80 investors and around $1.3 billion of demand, whereas a quarter of the shares were allocated to domestic investors.
Samsung's shares were priced between W954,000 and W975,000, a discount ranging from 6% to 8% against Thursday's close. The vendor sold 387,189 preference shares, which account for about 1.7% of the total remaining preference shares.
To date, Samsung's preference shares stand at 22.8 million as against 147.3 million ordinary shares. Its ordinary shares increased by 18% after hitting a low August this year.
This is reportedly the largest block trade in Asia, following Bank of America's $1.47 billion China Construction Bank-deal in early September and after Korean steel maker Posco raised $743 from the sale of its treasury shares.
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