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New York Times
17-07-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Acquittals Bring Samsung Chairman's Decade of Legal Woes to an End
The Supreme Court of South Korea acquitted the head of the country's tech giant, Samsung Electronics, on Thursday, resolving the last of a string of criminal charges and bringing the chairman's years of legal trouble to an end. The court cleared the Samsung Electronics chairman, Lee Jae-yong, of accounting fraud and stock manipulation, lifting a cloud of uncertainty that has hovered over him as his company grapples with President Trump's tariffs and global competition in developing chips used for artificial intelligence. Samsung is the most successful of the handful of family-owned conglomerates, known as chaebol, that have helped make South Korea a global export powerhouse and dominate the economy. Samsung Electronics alone accounts for nearly one-sixth of the country's total exports. But the company has also faced criticism and accusations of being above the law. Over the past decade, Mr. Lee, the scion of the company's founding family, has appeared in court multiple times and even went to jail for bribing a former president before being pardoned. The criminal charges in the case that ended Thursday stemmed from the 2015 merger of two Samsung subsidiaries, which helped cement his control of Samsung Electronics, as well as Samsung Group, South Korea's largest business conglomerate. Prosecutors accused Mr. Lee of illegally over- and underpricing the subsidiaries' stock prices and committing other criminal offenses during the merger. In February 2024, a district court cleared Mr. Lee of all the charges, citing a lack of evidence. In February, the Seoul High Court upheld the district court's ruling by rejecting an appeal from the prosecutors. The Supreme Court's ruling on Thursday made Mr. Lee's acquittal final by endorsing the Seoul High Court's decision. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
CNA
04-06-2025
- Business
- CNA
South Korean shares rally on post-election policy hopes
SEOUL: South Korean shares rose more than 2 per cent on Wednesday (Jun 4) to their highest in 10 months, as liberal presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung's election victory raised hopes of swift economic stimulus policies and market reforms. The benchmark KOSPI rose as much as 2.3 per cent in early trade to 2,761.54, the highest since Aug 1, 2024. Lee began his term on Wednesday, just hours after his victory in Tuesday's snap election, who has vowed to bring corporate reform measures to boost the domestic stock market, raise investment in artificial intelligence, and revive an economy reeling from slowing growth. The securities sector was the top gainer, rising more than 6 per cent, while financial groups jumped more than 3 per cent. Analysts expect the sectors to gain most from market reform pushes. On capital markets, Lee vowed to revive legislation within a few weeks to curb abuses by controlling shareholders of chaebol conglomerates, as part of his "KOSPI 5,000" pledge to double the value of the domestic stock market. The revision to the Commercial Act is seen by market analysts as a fundamental change needed to resolve the so-called "Korea Discount", a tendency for local shares to be undervalued compared with global peers due to low dividend payouts and opaque corporate governance. "We expect to see meaningful progress in capital market and governance reform post-election," Morgan Stanley's analysts said in a note, setting their KOSPI target for June 2026 at 2,800 for the base case and 3,100 for the bullish case. Renewable energy stocks rallied on expectations of a reversal in energy policy away from nuclear energy. HD Hyundai Energy Solutions surged 12.5 per cent to the highest since March 2023, Hanwha Solutions climbed 6.4 per cent, Doosan Fuel Cell gained 5.7 per cent, and CS Wind added 4.9 per cent. As Lee has expressed more conciliatory plans for ties with North Korea and China, stocks with exposure to North Korea, including In The F and Namkwang Engineering & Construction, and those with exposure to China, such as beauty product makers and entertainment firms, advanced. Among major heavyweights, chipmaker SK Hynix gained 6.3 per cent, while rival Samsung Electronics rose 0.70 per cent. "A combination of aggressive industrial policies and expansionary fiscal policies could lead to faster economic growth, at least in the short term," said Kim Jin-wook, an economist at Citi. "The Democratic Party's strong position in the National Assembly may accelerate the implementation of election pledges in the coming years," Kim said. The won was quoted 0.11 per cent higher at 1,375.6 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, as foreigners bought local shares. In the bond market, the benchmark 10-year treasury bond yield rose by 5.1 basis points to 2.852 per cent, the highest in two months, as Lee has said he would draft a second supplementary government budget of at least 30 trillion won (US$21.84 million) this year to boost economic growth, after a 13.8 trillion won budget passed in May.
