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Samsung has reportedly sold more than half of its stake in Dutch chip equipment supplier ASML. The Korean firm sold over 3.5 million shares of the Dutch company for roughly KRW 3 trillion (approx. $2.24 billion). The transaction happened in the second quarter of the year.
Samsung sold ASML shares to secure funds for semiconductor investment
Samsung acquired a three% stake in ASML in September 2012. It sold almost half of its stake (1.4%) in the company in September 2016, keeping the remaining 1.6% stake. The Korean media is now reporting that the firm has further sold a 0.9% stake sometime between April and June this year, bringing its stake in ASML down to just 0.7%.
According to a hankyung.com report, Samsung disclosed this transaction in a half-year report earlier today. The company held 6,297,787 shares of ASML at the end of March, but that dropped to 2,750,072 shares at the end of the second quarter. So it sold 3,547,715 shares or 0.9% stake in ASML. Considering ASML’s stock price trend during this period, Samsung may have made about $2.24 billion from this sale.
“We sold some of our ASML shares in the second quarter of this year,” a Samsung official confirmed to the publication. While they didn’t share further details, industry experts believe the company is security funds for semiconductor investment. Despite an economic slowdown and declining profits, the Korean firm has no intention to scale back investments in the semiconductor business. It sees sustained investment as the right way to avoid similar downturns in the future.
ASML returned a handsome profit to its investors
Samsung wasn’t the only company to buy a stake in ASML (originally standing for Advanced Semiconductor Materials Lithography) in 2012. The Dutch firm, which is the world’s only supplier of extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines used to manufacture advanced semiconductor chips, also invited investments from Intel (15% stake) and TSMC (five% stake) to secure funds to keep its operations running back then.
TSMC sold all of its ASML shares in January 2015, while Intel cut its stake to 4.9% in late 2017. Intel further reduced its stake in ASML to under three% in 2018. The investment eventually paid off big time. Both Samsung and Intel reportedly earned a 17X return on their investments in ASML in recent years. It has helped Samsung secure funds during a challenging economic environment. The Korean firm’s operating profit dropped a staggering 95% in Q2 2023, hitting a 14-year low.
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