Samsung CEO apologises for stock's fall, says company will pursue M&As for growth

Samsung shareholders had slammed the company's management at a meeting for poor stock performance and asked for measures to revive the share prices.

Samsung Electronics co-CEO Han Jong-hee said on Wednesday that the company is looking at making major deals to drive growth at a time when it is facing tough questions from shareholders.

Han Jong-hee, co-chief executive officer of Samsung Electronics Co., speaks at the company's annual general meeting at the Suwon Convention Center in Suwon, South Korea, March 19, 2025.(SeongJoon Cho/Pool via Reuters)

These questions are regarding the company's failure to ride the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, making it one of the worst-performing tech stocks last year, according to a Bloomberg report.

The company's shares tumbled by nearly a third last year, hitting a four-year low in November, while those of rival SK Hynix climbed 26%.

“First and foremost, I sincerely apologise for the recent stock performance not meeting your expectations,” the report quoted Han Jong-hee as having said in the company's annual general meeting. “Over the past year, our company failed to adequately respond to the rapidly evolving AI semiconductor market.”

This is because shareholders had slammed the company's management at the meeting for poor stock performance and asked for measures to revive the share prices.

On top of this, Han also told investors that 2025 would be a difficult year due to uncertainties regarding the economic policies in major economies and that Samsung would pursue “meaningful” mergers and acquisitions, especially in the US, to drive growth.

Apart from this, the South Korean company has also suffered from weak earnings and lost market share to TSMC in contract chip manufacturing and to Apple and Chinese rivals in smartphones.

The stock's fall is an issue since Samsung had introduced a stock-based performance system to executives last year and is considering expanding the scheme to employees next year.

Samsung is South Korea's most valuable company, with its market capitalisation of $235 billion accounting for 16% of the total value of the country's main bourse, according to the report which added that nearly 40% of investors in South Korean stocks own Samsung shares.