A group of Samsung Electronics’ retail investors has launched a campaign to force an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting, demanding a massive share buyback programme and tighter shareholder control over executive bonus payments.
The campaign is being led by South Korean retail shareholder platform ACT, which announced on Tuesday that it had started collecting electronic signatures from investors to meet the legal requirement needed to call the meeting. The group is also seeking support from the National Pension Service and major domestic and foreign asset managers.
At the centre of the proposal is a 45.5 trillion won (about $32 billion) share buyback plan, which investors believe would help restore confidence after Samsung’s shares lost more than a third of their value from record highs reached in June, despite strong optimism around artificial intelligence.
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ACT said its campaign is about more than the falling share price.
“This is not simply an expression of dissatisfaction over a falling share price. We are asking a basic capital-market question: who really owns a corporation?” the group said in a statement.
It added that retail investors remain loyal to the company but expect stronger accountability from management.
“Retail shareholders are like a company’s fan club: they praise it when it performs well and take out the stick when it does not,” ACT said.
The group is also seeking shareholder approval for limits on performance bonuses linked to Samsung’s operating profit. The proposal follows a wage agreement reached in May that allocated 10.5% of operating profit for special bonuses to employees in Samsung’s chip division. ACT argues that payouts of such size should not be decided solely by the company’s board.
Samsung Electronics has not publicly responded to the campaign. If ACT secures at least 3% shareholder backing, it can formally request the extraordinary meeting under South Korean corporate rules.
