On the 17th, Misto Holdings was up more than 3% intraday. The news that it will cancel 7,003,999 treasury shares (11.7% of total shares outstanding) is believed to have boosted investor sentiment.
As of 9:52 a.m. that day on the Korea Exchange, Misto Holdings was trading at 44,600 won, up 1,500 won (3.48%) from the previous session.
Earlier, Misto Holdings said the previous day in a filing that it would cancel 7,003,999 common treasury shares. This is equivalent to 11.7% of the 60,095,839 total shares outstanding. The same day, the company also disclosed it would additionally purchase 230,680 treasury shares.
Misto Holdings has purchased about 180 billion won worth of treasury shares from March this year to date. Adding the 50.4 billion won interim dividend, shareholder returns executed so far come to about 230 billion won. That means it has achieved about 46% of its shareholder return plan of up to 500 billion won targeted through 2027.
Jeong Ji-yoon, an analyst at NH Investment & Securities, said, "The large-scale cancellation of treasury shares could trigger a revaluation of corporate value," and noted, "The stance of strengthening shareholder returns will likely lead to a rise in the share price."