Samsung Electronics said Thursday it will buy back 2 trillion won ($1.7 billion) of its own shares in the third installment of its 11.3 trillion won buyback plan.

The scheme will start Friday for three months, while the whole scheme is expected to be completed by later this year. 


In October, the company announced it would spend 11.3 trillion won to buy back and cancel shares over the next year.

It is the company’s largest-ever payback scheme, following two others in 2007 and 2015, each worth 2 trillion won.

The scheme intends to boost per-share earnings and dividends by reducing the number of shares in issuance.

The latest move came as part of vice chairman and heir apparent Lee Jae-yong’s shareholder return plan after the highly-publicized merger between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries in September.

In a separate filing, the company said its first quarter net profit increased 13.55 percent on-year to 5.25 trillion won, propelled by strong sales of its flagship Galaxy S7 smartphones.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)