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| Samsung Electronics' headquarters in Seocho, Seoul. Yonhap |
By Lee Kyung-min
The wife and children of late Samsung Group chairman, Lee Kun-hee, have taken out a combined 4 trillion won ($3 billion) in stock loans to pay the 12 trillion won in inheritance tax due since he died in 2020, data showed Tuesday.
Of the total, 11 trillion won was for inheriting stocks. They have to pay 200 billion won in interest every year.
Market watchers say taking out loans as opposed to selling shares of Samsung Electronics and Samsung Life, is in fact, an indication that the owner family wants limited changes in the group's current governance structure.
Backing up this view is the fact that the bereaved family members of the late Nexon founder Kim Jung-joo, by comparison, have given up 30 percent of the shares of NXC, the holding firm of Nexon Group, last week. This was to avoid having to come up with an additional 6 trillion won in inheritance taxes after Kim died in 2022.
Data from the Financial Supervisory Service showed that three family members of the Samsung family recently took out a combined 2.1 trillion won loan against Samsung Electronics shares.
They are Lee's wife Hong Ra-hee, former director of the Samsung Museum of Art, also known as Leeum, and her two daughters ― Hotel Shilla CEO Lee Boo-jin and Samsung Welfare Foundation Chairman Lee Seo-hyun.
Hong took out 1.4 trillion won, followed by Hotel Shilla CEO's 517 billion won and 190 billion won sought by the welfare foundation chair.
From April 2021, they said that they would pay the 12 trillion won tax in installments, over the course of five years. Half of the amount is paid and the remaining half will be paid over the next three years.
Of the 11 trillion won, 3.1 trillion won will be paid by Hong. Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong will pay 2.9 trillion won, the Hotel Shilla CEO will pay 2.6 trillion won and the Samsung Welfare Foundation chairwoman will pay 2.4 trillion won.
Last year, Hong sold over 19.94 million shares of Samsung Electronics at 68,800 won per stock on March 24. The total amount of 1.37 trillion won accounted for 0.33 percent of her total shares. The per-share price was 2.4 percent lower than the closing price in the previous session.
Lee Boo-jin and Lee Seo-hyun sold a combined 610 billion won worth of Samsung SDS and Samsung Life shares.
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