[비즈한국] Multicampus has joined the ranks of Samsung-affiliated listed companies engaged in stock buybacks and cancellations. Following Samsung Electronics, Samsung C&T, and its financial affiliates, even the smallest listed company by market capitalization within the group has decided to buy back its own shares from the market to enhance shareholder value for the first time. The company plans to cancel all acquired shares in the future.
As a result, among listed Samsung affiliates, the companies that have never repurchased their own shares for the purpose of enhancing shareholder value have narrowed down to Samsung SDS, Samsung Biologics, and Samsung Epis Holding.
However, it is not that these companies are failing to provide shareholder returns altogether. Samsung SDS, while paying dividends, is investing large-scale capital into AI infrastructure and M&As, while Samsung Biologics is even pursuing a 3 trillion won capital increase to fund production facilities and the acquisition of overseas firms. Samsung Epis Holding is in a different situation, given that it is a new holding company launched in November of last year.
Even among Samsung affiliates, there are diverging capital allocation strategies regarding whether to use cash on hand for share buybacks and cancellations or to reinvest it into future businesses.
Multicampus to Buy Back 4 Billion Won in Shares, Plans Full Cancellation
According to the Financial Supervisory Service's Data Analysis, Retrieval and Transfer System (DART), Multicampus held a board meeting on September 22 and decided to directly acquire 172,786 of its own shares in the open market. The estimated acquisition amount is approximately 4 billion won.
The acquisition period runs from September 23 to December 22. The stated purpose of the acquisition is 'stock price stability and enhancement of shareholder value.' Multicampus plans to cancel all the shares acquired this time.
Multicampus is a corporate education specialist affiliate of which Samsung SDS holds a 62.4% stake, providing job-related, IT, AI, and leadership training, as well as foreign language assessment services like OPIc, to domestic companies including other Samsung affiliates.
This is the first time Multicampus has directly purchased its own shares in the open market for the purpose of enhancing shareholder value.
Multicampus has held treasury shares in the past. In 2015, treasury shares were generated due to the exercise of appraisal rights during the business transfer of the Samsung SDS educational content division, and in 2020, the 36,714 shares it held were disposed of through a block deal. This differs in nature from the current case, where the company is buying its own shares in the market to boost shareholder value.
Excluding Rainbow Robotics and Emro, which were acquired by Samsung but have not yet been integrated into the corporate group's affiliates, there are 18 listed Samsung affiliates. Excluding the REIT, Samsung FN REIT, and considering Multicampus's latest decision, the three companies with no history of repurchasing shares to boost shareholder value are Samsung SDS, Samsung Biologics, and Samsung Epis Holding.
Conversely, Samsung Electronics, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Samsung C&T, Samsung SDI, Samsung E&A, Samsung Heavy Industries, Samsung Life Insurance, Samsung Securities, Samsung Card, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, S-1, Cheil Worldwide, and Hotel Shilla have all previously bought back shares for purposes such as stock price stabilization or increasing shareholder value.
Recently, the trend has shifted from merely buying back shares to actually canceling them.
Samsung Electronics decided in March to cancel 73,359,314 common shares and 13,603,461 preferred shares acquired in 2025. The total value for the planned cancellation per the public disclosure is approximately 5.3455 trillion won.
Samsung Electronics is pursuing shareholder returns of 90 trillion to 110 trillion won this year. Of this, it is first implementing about 30 trillion won in cash dividends for the third quarter, with the remaining methods and scale of returns to be decided at the board meeting next January. There is a possibility that further share buybacks and cancellations may be included in the future.
Samsung C&T is also phasing out its treasury shares in accordance with the shareholder return policy announced in 2023. In March of this year, it canceled treasury shares valued at approximately 2.3267 trillion won as disclosed.
With stock buybacks and cancellations becoming established as primary shareholder return tools across the group, the affiliates that have yet to adopt this method stand out.
Samsung SDS, with Over 6 Trillion Won in Cash, Invests 10 Trillion Won in AI Instead of Buybacks
Samsung SDS is a prime example. The company is currently prioritizing the allocation of funds toward expanding its AI and cloud business over share repurchases for shareholder returns. In its corporate value enhancement plan announced last March, the company stated it would expand capital expenditures (CAPEX) such as AI data centers and actively utilize cash-equivalent assets for inorganic growth through M&As. It also presented a policy to increase shareholder returns in the mid-to-long term.
The investment scale reaches 10 trillion won. Samsung SDS plans to invest 5 trillion won in AI infrastructure, 1 trillion won in AX, AI services, platforms, and solution businesses, and 4 trillion won in strategic M&As and new businesses by 2031.
At the time the company announced its plan, it held approximately 6.6 trillion won in cash equivalents. It also secured additional investment funds by issuing convertible bonds (CB) worth approximately 1.22 trillion won to global investment firm KKR.
National AI Computing Centers and the Gumi AI Data Center are representative investment projects. Samsung SDS plans to expand its AI infrastructure capacity from the current 110MW to 230MW by 2029 and over 800MW by 2031. It is also pursuing M&As for new businesses such as physical AI and digital assets.
It is not that Samsung SDS is ignoring shareholder returns. The dividend policy presented by the company for 2025–2027 targets a dividend payout ratio of around 30%. The dividend per share for the 2025 fiscal year was 3,190 won, a 10% increase from the previous year's 2,900 won. The actual payout ratio was 32.5%. However, thus far, it appears to have prioritized growth investments over share buybacks for shareholder returns.
Samsung SDS management also explained during this year's earnings announcement that, as this is a critical inflection point for the AI transition, it is essential to first invest holding funds into AI infrastructure and M&A to lay the foundation for long-term growth. Their stance is that they will review capital allocation policies again after examining investment results and cash flow.
In essence, they have chosen to increase corporate value itself by utilizing over 6 trillion won in cash and additional capital raised from external sources rather than immediate share buybacks.
Samsung Biologics Instead Pursues 3 Trillion Won Capital Increase… Re-evaluating Shareholder Returns in 3 Years
Samsung Biologics has a clear investment-first strategy. When announcing the direction of its shareholder return policy last January, the company stated that it would prioritize capital allocation toward expanding its domestic BioCampus II and III, securing overseas production bases, and strategic M&As for the time being.
The policy is to re-evaluate its shareholder return policy in three years, comprehensively considering the business environment, investment progress, cash-generating ability, and financial standing at that time.
In fact, Samsung Biologics is raising large amounts of capital from outside rather than buying back its own shares for shareholder returns.
In August, Samsung Biologics decided on a shareholder-allotted paid-in capital increase of approximately 3 trillion won. The exact expected procurement amount is 3.009 trillion won. Of this, approximately 2.7062 trillion won is planned to be invested in the acquisition of Swiss peptide CDMO company PolyPeptide Group, and 294.8 billion won is earmarked for the expansion of the Songdo BioCampus II.
The acquisition of PolyPeptide is an investment to broaden Samsung Biologics' business domain from existing antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) into the peptide field used for obesity and diabetes treatments. The acquisition amount is approximately 2.7 trillion won.
Investments in production facilities are also continuing. Samsung Biologics launched its 180,000-liter Plant 5 last year and plans to build Plants 6 through 8 sequentially at BioCampus II. It is also pushing to expand its total global production capacity to 1.385 million liters by 2032.
It is not postponing shareholder returns because its performance is sluggish. Samsung Biologics' revenue for the first half of this year was 2.578 trillion won, with an operating profit of 1.1672 trillion won, marking increases of 28% and 29%, respectively, compared to the same period last year. While plants 1 through 4 maintain high utilization rates, it is simultaneously expanding growth investments.
From the company's perspective, it has judged that using currently generated profits for additional production facilities, new technologies, and overseas acquisitions is more advantageous for increasing long-term corporate value than for share buybacks.
Samsung Epis Holding is a New Company Less Than a Year After Listing
Samsung Epis Holding needs to be viewed a bit differently than Samsung SDS or Samsung Biologics. Samsung Epis Holding was launched on November 1 of last year during the process of separating Samsung Biologics' CDMO business from its subsidiary investment business. It was re-listed on the KOSPI market on the 24th of the same month. It has not even been a year since the company was listed.
It holds Samsung Bioepis as a 100% subsidiary and has also newly established EpisNexLab, a bio-technology platform development company. EpisNexLab is in charge of developing next-generation bio-platform technologies such as peptides.
Currently, Samsung Epis Holding is also in a stage of focusing on expanding its business foundation rather than shareholder returns. Its core subsidiary, Samsung Bioepis, recorded revenue of 847.1 billion won and an operating profit of 230.6 billion won in the first half of this year. It is expanding its business scope through new drug and ADC development while increasing direct sales of biosimilar products in Europe. Samsung Epis Holding has also begun securing next-generation growth engines, such as building a global R&D hub in China.
This is why it is difficult to make a simple comparison with Samsung SDS or Samsung Biologics based solely on the fact that Samsung Epis Holding has no history of repurchasing shares for shareholder value enhancement. It is not that an existing company has failed to buy back shares for a long time, but rather that the company itself is less than a year old.