SEOUL (Reuters) – Shares in Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and affiliates rose on Monday after the death a day earlier of Chairman Lee Kun-hee sparked hopes for restructuring and stake sales, analysts said.
Shares in Samsung C&T and Samsung Life Insurance rose as much as 21.2% and 15.7% respectively, while shares in Samsung BioLogics, Samsung SDS and Samsung Engineering also rose.
Lee was the wealthiest stock owner in South Korea, with holdings including 4.18% of Samsung Electronics common shares and 0.08% of preferred shares, worth about 15 trillion won ($13.3 billion) in total.
He also held a 20.76% stake in Samsung Life worth about 2.6 trillion won, and a 2.88% stake in Samsung C&T worth about 564 billion won as of Friday’s closing.
(Reporting by Joyce Lee and Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Stephen Coates)