Samsung Life makes strong debut on S. Korean bourse

SEOUL, May 12 (Yonhap) -- Shares of Samsung Life Insurance Co. got off to a solid
start Wednesday, the firm's first trading day on the open market, after a
record-high initial public offering (IPO), analysts said.
The country's biggest life insurance company was trading at 117,500 won
(US$103.7) as of 9:35 a.m., up 6.8 percent from the IPO price of 110,000 won on
the KOSPI stock index, the main bourse of the Korea Exchange.
Samsung Life Insurance raised 4.89 trillion won last week after selling 44.4
million existing shares to institutional and retail investors, the biggest
initial stock offering on record.
With the market opening, the life insurer briefly soared to become the
fourth-largest company by market capitalization on the main bourse with 23.4
trillion won, after top-listed firms Samsung Electronics, POSCO and Hyundai Motor
Co.
The life insurer posted 906.1 billion won in net profit in fiscal 2009, which
ended on March 31, growing eight-fold from a year earlier, the firm said in a
regulatory filing released after the market opening.
pbr@yna.co.kr
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