Kwak Dong-shin, chairman of Hanmi Semiconductor and one of the nation’s richest men, plans to gift shares worth 36.3 billion won each to his two sons next month. It is generally interpreted as a signal that the stock price is at its bottom when a major shareholder announces a share gift, as gifting when the stock price is low can reduce taxes.

According to the Financial Supervisory Service’s electronic disclosure system on April 22, Kwak revealed through a report on the trading plan of specific securities by major shareholders that he would gift common shares to his two children on May 22. Since transactions can occur within 70% to 130% of the transaction amount, the actual gift size may vary.

Chairman Kwak plans to gift 483,071 shares each to his sons, Kwak Ho-sung and Kwak Ho-jung, at a disposal price of 75,100 won per share, totaling about 36.28 billion won. The quantity and transaction amount were calculated based on the closing price on April 21. In terms of shareholding, it accounts for 0.5% each, totaling 1%. With this, Kwak will gift about 72.56 billion won.

In March and April of this year, Kwak secured a total of 5 billion won in shares through open market purchases, increasing his stake to 34.01%. With the gift to his two children, Kwak’s stake is expected to decrease to 33.01%.

In July of last year, Kwak also gifted a total of 1,939,874 shares, 969,937 shares each, to his two children. At that time, it was valued at 306.3 billion won based on the closing price.

The Hanmi Semiconductor chairman is among the richest people in South Korea, with Forbes estimating his net worth in December 2024 to be $2.2 billion and ranking him the 8th richest person in the country.

The announcement of a major shareholder’s share gift is interpreted as a signal that the stock price has bottomed out because a gift tax rate of 50% is applied if the taxable standard exceeds 3 billion won, resulting in a substantial gift tax. Therefore, shares are often gifted when stock prices are low. 

Previously, Hanmi Semiconductor announced plans to enhance corporate value, including sales targets through new product launches, non-taxable dividends, continuous share buybacks, and profit cancellation after share buybacks. Last year, the company bought back shares worth 200 billion won, and has consistently implemented dividend policies for 19 years since its listing in 2005. The average shareholder return rate over the past six years is 66.39%. Since 2018, the profit cancellation amount has reached 169.9 billion won.