The stock price of SILICON2 has fallen significantly for two consecutive trading days. This is a result of company founder and largest shareholder Kim Seong-woon selling part of his equity in the market, leading to protests and panic selling from individual investors. The company explained that Kim's equity sale was to raise funds for paying gift tax, noting that the equity sold was about 1 percentage point, but over two days, the market capitalization evaporated by more than 300 billion won.
As of 10:30 a.m. on the 3rd, SILICON2 is trading around 53,000 won, down more than 5% from the previous trading day. The closing price on the 1st was 61,400 won, while it ended at 55,900 won on the 2nd after falling 8.66%. In NextTrade, where transactions are available until 8 p.m., it dropped more than 12%.
The reason for the sharp decline in SILICON2's stock price is the news that executives, including Kim, sold part of the company's shares in the market. SILICON2 announced that as of 3 p.m. on the 2nd, the combined equity stake of Kim Seong-woon and related parties decreased from 51.18% to 50.53%. Kim and family members, including spouse Shin Eun-ha, mother Lee Kyung-ja, and sister Kim Young-ah, sold 425,062 shares for about 25.5 billion won.
The company explained that Kim sold shares to raise cash for paying the gift tax. Kim secured 7 billion won by selling 117,600 shares. Besides Kim, related parties also sold shares in the market at a similar time and gained 18.6 billion won, for which there was no explanation of special reasons.
Earlier, in January last year, Kim also sold 170,000 shares in the market to pay the gift tax. When this news broke, the stock price fell by 7%.
Even though the equity sold by SILICON2 executives is less than 1%, investor sentiment has significantly weakened. Over the course of two to three days, SILICON2's market capitalization shrank by nearly 400 billion won. The KOSDAQ market capitalization ranking also fell from 12th on the 1st to 14th on the 2nd.
Reactions from individual investors are also intense. In the stock discussion room, comments include, "Selling by major shareholders is taken as a sign of market peak, and the company has been too hasty," "I don't understand why such a disclosure was made a day before the revision of the Commercial Act was passed," and "The stock price could have risen because of performance expectations, but they rushed it."
It seems that there is also an element of 'resentment' in this. On the morning of the 2nd, before this disclosure was made, a report was released recommending an increase in SILICON2's target stock price to 71,000 won. In a situation where expectations for performance improvement and stock price increase had grown, the decision by the executives to sell equity seems to have provoked individual investors.
However, there is criticism that the worries are excessive. One analyst noted, "Kim's stock assets are worth nearly 1 trillion won, and the stake of the largest shareholder, including related parties, remains high," adding that concerns about a 'peak-out' due to the partial equity disposal for gift tax payment are excessive.