Samsung sells shares to exit chemical and defense operations

Samsung will exit its chemical and defense operations in Samsung's general chemical and Samsung Techwin by selling shares. The shares sold were worth 1.9 trillion won (1.7 billion U.S. dollars). Another noted that Samsung Techwin shares fell 14.9% this morning.

Since Mr Lee's heart attack in May, Li's family, the founding family of South Korea's largest conglomerate, is experiencing a change of power. Mr. Li has two girls on his knee. South Korean media say the three heirs may eventually have to bear a 6 billion dollar estate tax. Samsung's male successor Lee is likely to sell some of its shares before retiring next May, according to the Korea Times.

Samsung Group's first wool-weaving company, which is set to open tenders in Monday, is expected to raise more than $1.4 billion trillion for its IPO next month. Demand for the woolen industry is still strong, according to two Asian publishers specializing in investment banking, IFR Asia and Finance Asia.

Last month, under the Samsung Flag, SDS managed to raise 1.1 billion of dollars to become one of South Korea's biggest IPOs since 2010. In fact, the stock price of the Samsung SDS has risen 125% per cent as early as two weeks before the IPO.

Indeed, Samsung has recently cleared some roadblocks. Samsung was forced to cancel a 2.3 billion-dollar shipbuilding project. But if the price of Samsung Shipbuilding falls further, Samsung may be making a merger attempt again.

Samsung's internal complex cross shareholding structure to some extent to the South Korean blue chips have benefited. Samsung Electronics, its leading enterprise, has grown to 50% of Apple's market capitalisation. But as Samsung moves towards a modern corporate structure, the growth of market capitalisation is not hard to foresee.