Lee Jae-yong, the heir to the group and vice chairman of Samsung, received a presidential pardon from South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol last month. Lee had been serving a jail sentence after being found guilty of bribery and embezzlement in 2017. His pardon has also prevailed in the court of public opinion, despite slight worries about how the public could react to the release of a criminal. Nikkei Asia reports reports that domestic Samsung shareholders have welcomed Lee’s return to the workplace.
HUGE PUBLIC SUPPORT IS GIVEN TO SAMSUNG HEIR The most valued firm in South Korea is Samsung. The corporation has amassed more than 5.9 million individual owners in the nation since the 50-to-1 stock split in 2018, which increased public access to its shares. When you consider that the country has a population of roughly 52 million, that is a huge number. Nearly 11% of South Koreans own stock in Samsung. And they all want Lee to lead the business and expand it on a worldwide scale.
This number increases to almost 15% when you include other publicly traded Samsung Group entities, like Samsung Heavy Industries and Samsung SDI (8.1 million total shareholders). To put the figure in perspective, SoftBank, a telecom corporation, has the most stockholders in Japan (840,000). However, that represents only around 0.6% of the nation’s entire population. Thus, Samsung enjoys a sizable fanbase in South Korea, thus it should come as no surprise that Lee’s pardon has sparked a positive energy wave within its shareholder community.
Advertisement Lee received parole in August 2021 prior to the presidential pardon last month. Seventy percent of South Koreans, according to a study done before the parole, want him to be pardoned so he can manage the Samsung Group once more. This popular attitude may have been taken into consideration when President Yoon Suk-yeol and former President Moon Jae-in made their decisions.
THE SAMSUNG GROUP’S LEADERSHIP HAS BEEN RETURNED TO LEE JAE-YONG As of August 15, the anniversary of South Korea’s National Liberation Day, Lee Jae-yong is once again in charge of the Samsung Group thanks to his presidential pardon. A few days after receiving the pardon, he was present at the company’s groundbreaking for a new $15 billion Randamp;D semiconductor chip plant. Additionally, Samsung just inaugurated its biggest semiconductor production facility ever. The new facility is situated on the South Korean campus in Pyeongtaek. Lee has promised to put in more effort to advance alongside South Korean society, and it already seems as though he is doing so.
