SK Square to buy back $152 mn of its stocks by March 2024

South Korean investment firm SK Square Co. will buy back 200 billion won ($151.9 million) worth of corporate shares by March of next year as an effort toward shareholder remuneration, said the intermediate holding company of Korea’s No. 2 conglomerate SK Group.

SK Square’s share buyback will reach around 4.4 million common shares based on its Aug. 9 closing price, which is 45,450 won, and will make up nearly 3.2% of outstanding shares.   

The repurchase amount is part of a 860 billion won sale of a 28.8% stake in security firm SK Shieldus Co. to Swedish private equity giant EQT Partners AB signed in February of this year. SK Square received 410 billion won from EQT on July 20 and will get the remaining 450 billion won within two years.

This will mark SK Square's second share buyback  – it repurchased 106.3 billion won worth of its stocks between March and June of this year and will retire them on Oct. 4.      

The investment firm is proud to have returned profits to stakeholders shortly after achieving returns and will continue to work to actively remunerate shareholders, SK Square said.

SK Square plans to invest in global chip components and equipment makers via TGC Square, a 100 billion won joint venture between the investment firm and the world’s second-largest memory chipmaker SK Hynix Inc.

SK Square was spun off from Korea’s top mobile carrier SK Telecom Co. in 2021. Among its portfolio companies are SK Hynix, navigation service provider Tmap Mobility Co., e-commerce platform 11Street, music platform operator Dreamus Company and homegrown application store One Store Co.

Write to Ji-Eun Jeong at jeong@hankyung.com

Jihyun Kim edited this article.