Samsung Electronics said Friday that it plans to return between 90 trillion won ($65.2 billion) and 110 trillion won to shareholders this year, the largest shareholder return ever undertaken by a Korean company.

The company's board approved the plan earlier in the day. At the upper end of the range, the return would be more than five times Samsung's previous record of 20.3 trillion won, set in 2020. In dollar terms, the plan would place Samsung's annual capital return in the same bracket as the buyback and dividend programs of the largest US technology companies, which have topped global corporate payout rankings in recent years.

"The record shareholder return is aimed at ensuring that the benefits of the company's growth are shared with shareholders in a tangible way and at sustaining a virtuous cycle between corporate growth and enhanced shareholder value," a Samsung Electronics official said.

The plan falls under Samsung's existing three-year shareholder return policy, which runs from 2024 through 2026 and commits the company to returning 50 percent of its free cash flow to shareholders. That commitment marked a step change for Samsung, which, like other large South Korean conglomerates, had long drawn criticism from foreign investors and governance advocates over payouts that were low relative to its cash generation, a recurring complaint in the debate over the persistent valuation gap between Korean listed companies and their global peers, known as the "Korea discount." The policy also aligned with the South Korean government's Corporate Value-up Program, launched in 2024 to encourage listed companies to expand and disclose shareholder return plans. As the country's largest company by market capitalization and a heavyweight in the benchmark KOSPI index, Samsung's capital-return decisions are watched as a reference point for how far Korean corporate governance practice is shifting.

Under that policy, Samsung paid 9.8 trillion won in regular dividends in each of 2024 and 2025, bringing the two-year total to 19.6 trillion won. Last year, the company also paid 1.3 trillion won in special dividends and bought back and canceled 8.4 trillion won worth of its own shares.

Including this year's planned returns, Samsung expects to return a total of 120 trillion won to 140 trillion won to shareholders over the three-year period.

For this year, the company plans to pay about 30 trillion won in cash dividends, including its regular third-quarter dividend. The exact size and structure of the dividend will be finalized at a board meeting in late October.

The remainder of this year's shareholder return will be determined at a board meeting in January, after the company finalizes its full-year results. Samsung said it is considering a combination of additional cash dividends and share buybacks followed by cancellations. The structure determines how the return reaches shareholders: canceled buybacks permanently retire shares and reduce the outstanding share count, while cash dividends distribute funds directly. With roughly 30 trillion won already earmarked for dividends, the January decision will set the balance between those two channels for the larger share of the record payout.

Separately, the board approved the purchase of about 15 trillion won worth of treasury shares to fund employee compensation. The employee compensation program is separate from the shareholder return plan, though Samsung said the share purchases are also expected to contribute to enhancing shareholder value. Unlike the buybacks under the return plan, those shares will be held in treasury for compensation purposes rather than canceled.