삼성전자의 자본구조와 배당정책에 관한 사례연구

This paper examines the history of financing decisions of Samsung Electronics from 1969 to 2014. This case study shows that the most notable change in the financing activities of Samsung is the sharp switch from debt finance to internal finance due to the significant improvement of its profitability after the Asian Financial Crisis. This change results in the decline of book leverages following the crisis. Meanwhile, the dividend policy was close to stable dividend policy before the crisis. On the contrary, Samsung has changed its dividend policy from a stable dividend policy to a constant dividend payout ratio policy after the crisis. Further, another notable change in its dividend policy is the sharp increase of share repurchases over the periods following the crisis. On average, however, the payout ratio and dividend yield of Samsung are much lower than those of its rivals, and the lower dividends has been behind the depressed valuations of its common stock. Therefore, in order to mitigate the possibility that the free cash flows would be wasted by the founding family and maximize the price of its common stock under its current opaque corporate governance, it will have to seriously consider the increase of cash dividends.