Samsung shares climb more than 7% after surprise $7 billion buyback plan

A Samsung Group flag flutters in front of the company’s Seocho building in Seoul. 

Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Shares of Samsung Electronics jumped on Monday after the company unveiled a surprise plan to buy back about 10 trillion South Korean won ($7.19 billion) worth of its own stock over the next 12 months.

The South Korean tech giant’s stock rose more than 7% in Seoul, after shares had already surged 7.21% on Friday, following news that the company reached a preliminary agreement with its largest workers union, which went on strike in July.

Samsung last bought back shares in November 2017, according to data maintained by LSEG.

In a regulatory filing, the company said that 3 trillion won of shares will be bought back in the next three months and canceled. While the repurchase of the remaining 7 trillion won worth of shares will be “authorized accordingly by the Board, which will decide on ways to enhance shareholder value, including when and how to use the treasury shares,” it added.

Shares of Samsung had hit a four year low on November 15, after the company posted a disappointing profit guidance for its third quarter and amid worries about tariffs after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump won the presidential election.

The company has fallen behind rival SK Hynix in the race to supply high bandwidth memory, or HBM chips, that are a key component used by AI leader Nvidia, with analysts telling CNBC that “it is fair to say that Samsung has not been able to close the gap with SK Hynix on the HBM development roadmap.”

HBM is a type of dynamic random access memory, known as DRAM. DRAM is often used in laptops, workstations and PCs.

According to South Korean media, SK Hynix is the first chipmaker in the world to supply fifth-generation HBM3E chips in March to Nvidia.

— CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report.