BlackRock raised its stake in Samsung Electronics to 5.03 percent, becoming the Korean tech giant’s third-largest shareholder.

BlackRock investment services subsidiary BlackRock Fund Advisors confirmed on Feb. 7 that the asset manager owns 300 million shares in Samsung as of Jan. 28. Based on the closing price on the day, the asset value is estimated at 13.8 trillion won.

(Yonhap)

The New York-based firm owned a 4.99 percent stake as of Jan. 25, and made the additional purchase of 2.1 million shares amounting to a 0.04 percent stake three days later. The acquisition came to attention as a stake purchase of over 5 percent in a listed firm mandates a report be filed with the Financial Supervisory Service and Korea Exchange within five days of the ownership.

This makes BlackRock the third-largest shareholder of Samsung Electronics, following the National Pension Service, which had 8.96 percent as of Jan. 24, and Samsung Life Insurance with 7.48 percent stake as of Jan. 14.

In 2018, BlackRock raised its stakes in SK hynix, LG Electronics and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering to 5.08 percent, 5.04 percent and 5.57 percent, respectively, becoming a major shareholder in each of the Korean companies.

By Kim Arin (arin@heraldcorp.com)