April 25, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Shares of Samsung Securities tumbled more than 10 percent on April 6 after the firm mistakenly sent its employees stock dividends.

Under an employee stock ownership plan, the brokerage had planned to pay dividends of 1,000 won (US$0.93) each to its employees. However, it paid dividends of 1,000 shares after a worker processed the wrong figure. 

“There was a computational problem today that resulted in shares, instead of dividend payouts being made,” the firm said. It said the error took place during the process of transferring dividend payouts into employee accounts.

Samsung Securities fixed the error, but some employees had already sold the stocks. At the end of last month, its employees held a combined 2.83 million shares in the firm.

About 5 million shares of the erroneously paid dividends were sold on the day, according to the brokerage.

The shares plunged 11.68 percent to 35,150 won at one point in late morning trading. The price closed at 38,350 won, down 3.64 percent from the day before. The total trading volume was 18 million shares -- 35 times greater than in the previous session.

By Lee Ji-yoon and newswires (jylee@heraldcorp.com)