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12-04-2018, 03:40 PM
The $105 Billion ‘Ghost Stock' Blunder Rocking Markets in Korea
By Min Jeong Lee and Kyungji Cho
April 12, 2018, 2:36 PM GMT+8
It started with a $105 billion blunder, and then it got worse.
Someone at Samsung Securities Co., one of South Korea’s largest brokerages, was trying to pay employees 1,000 won (93 U.S. cents) per share in dividends under a company compensation plan. Somehow, they gave them 1,000 Samsung Securities shares instead. In total, the company distributed 2.83 billion shares, worth -- on paper -- about 112.6 trillion won. That was more than 30 times the company’s market value.
The fact that the shares didn’t exist didn’t stop 16 employees from selling them. And that spurred a rout in Samsung Securities’ stock. It plunged as much as 12 percent in the space of minutes on April 6, the biggest decline since the global financial crisis. Many retail investors got burned.
More details in https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...s-in-korea
By Min Jeong Lee and Kyungji Cho
April 12, 2018, 2:36 PM GMT+8
It started with a $105 billion blunder, and then it got worse.
Someone at Samsung Securities Co., one of South Korea’s largest brokerages, was trying to pay employees 1,000 won (93 U.S. cents) per share in dividends under a company compensation plan. Somehow, they gave them 1,000 Samsung Securities shares instead. In total, the company distributed 2.83 billion shares, worth -- on paper -- about 112.6 trillion won. That was more than 30 times the company’s market value.
The fact that the shares didn’t exist didn’t stop 16 employees from selling them. And that spurred a rout in Samsung Securities’ stock. It plunged as much as 12 percent in the space of minutes on April 6, the biggest decline since the global financial crisis. Many retail investors got burned.
More details in https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...s-in-korea
Specuvestor: Asset - Business - Structure.