According to Yonhap News Agency reported on 21 February, Samsung published a 2023 annual accounting report showing that Samsung in the fourth quarter of 2023 emptied its holdings of Dutch lithography manufacturer ASML’s remaining shares of 1,580,400 shares (shareholding ratio of 0.4%), it’s expected to cash out of about 1.2 trillion won (about $0.9 billion).
According to information, in 2012, to support the ASML EUV lithography research and development and commercialization, and to obtain the priority supply of EUV lithography, 2012, Intel, TSMC, and Samsung invested in ASML. 2012 July, Intel shared in ASML to obtain a 15% stake and contributed 1 billion U.S. dollars to support the research and development.
In August 2012, TSMC into ASML to obtain a 5% stake in the commitment to five years to invest 276 million euros to support research and development.
In August 2012, Samsung into ASML to get 3% equity, and an additional investment of 275 million euros to support research and development. The information shows that Samsung’s ASML investment amounted to 363 billion won.
Although Samsung has the smallest shareholding among these three manufacturers, the profit is huge. This is because TSMC liquidated its position in ASML’s stock as early as 2015, and Intel sold its holdings in ASML in 2017, 2018, and beyond.
Samsung still owns about 1.6% of ASML although it also sold about half of its ASML stake in the third quarter of 2016, cashing in about 750 billion won.
In the second quarter of 2023, Samsung reduced its stake in Dutch lithography major ASML, bringing its stake in ASML down by 3,547,715 shares from 6,297,870,000 in the first quarter to 2,750,007,200,000 in the second quarter. Samsung Electronics’ stake in ASML decreased to 0.7% from 1.6%. The book value (market value) of the shares also dropped from about 5.59 trillion won to 2.6 trillion won, with an estimated cash out of about 3 trillion won.
In the third quarter of 2023, Samsung again reduced its stake in ASML by about 0.3 percent, cashing out about KRW 1.34 trillion. After the reduction in the fourth quarter of 2023, Samsung Electronics’ stake in ASML has been eliminated.
Comprehensive view, Samsung reduced ASML shares accumulated 6.29 trillion won, compared to the previous 363 billion won investment, a profit of more than 16 times.
The industry believes that Samsung’s sale of ASML shares is to raise funds for its semiconductor investment, despite the global economic slowdown, Samsung Electronics continues to increase investment to enhance future competitiveness.
