[Asia Economy Reporter Eunmo Koo] SK Telecom announced on the 14th that it has completed a change of listing on the Korea Exchange reflecting the cancellation of 8.69 million treasury shares to enhance shareholder value. This accounts for 10.8% of the total issued shares. As a result, as of the previous day, the total number of issued shares of SK Telecom decreased from the existing 80.75 million shares to 72.06 million shares.
SK Telecom explained, "Despite the reduction in the total number of issued shares, the market capitalization recorded about 22.5 trillion KRW as of the previous day, which is about 10% higher than the market capitalization (about 20.5 trillion KRW) on March 25, when the corporate restructuring (spin-off) was officially announced at the shareholders' meeting." They added that the stock price also rose more than 30% compared to the beginning of the year.
SK Telecom stated, "Considering the overall securities industry's view that corporate value will increase after the spin-off, since the number of shares has decreased without any change in corporate fundamentals, there is an analysis that the potential for stock value increase is greater than before the treasury share cancellation."
SK Telecom plans to complete the spin-off procedure by obtaining board approval within the first half of the year, holding a shareholders' meeting in October, and relisting the spin-off corporation in November.
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