'Stocks for which no owner can be found' close to 1.5 trillion won... 26,000 unclaimed shareholders

There is also a case of up to 70.7 billion won of 'unreceived stock' that one individual did not pick up.

Democratic Party Han Min-soo "We need an active campaign, including text messaging,"

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Yu-hyang = Although the amount of unclaimed stocks held by the Korea Securities Depository is close to 1.5 trillion won, the annual average of stocks returned to owners through the search campaign over the past five years has been found to be only 55.7 billion won.

According to data submitted from the Korea Securities Depository by Rep. Han Min-soo of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee, on the 8th, the total number of unclaimed stocks held by the Korea Securities Depository as of the end of August this year is 808,404,18. The valuation of these stocks was calculated to be 1.4707 trillion won.

The reason why such lost stocks occur is because the stock certificates issued through the company's paid-in capital increase, free capital increase, stock dividend, etc. are not received. This occurs when the relevant shareholder is unaware of this fact or does not receive relevant information due to a change in address. Such unclaimed stocks will be stored by transfer agencies such as Korea Securities Depository.

Unclaimed stocks, which were 763,536,816 shares or 1.4443 trillion won at the end of last year, have increased by about 26.4 billion won based on valuation over the past eight months this year.

The number of unclaimed shareholders increased by 931 from 25,349 at the end of last year to 26,280 at the end of August this year. As of the end of August this year, there were 22,526 individual shareholders and 3,754 corporate shareholders.

The case with the largest individual unclaimed stock valuation was a shareholder holding 644,247 shares, amounting to 70.67 billion won. Among corporations, the largest amount was 42,227,674 shares or 211.14 billion won.

Unclaimed dividends were calculated to amount to approximately 5.6 billion won for individuals and 170 million won for corporations.

On the other hand, over the past five years, the total number of stocks returned to owners by the Korea Securities Depository through the 'Campaign to Find Unclaimed Stocks' was 278.3 billion won.

When calculated on an annual average, it is approximately 55.7 billion won, equivalent to approximately 3.9% of the unclaimed stock balance at the end of last year.

While conducting an annual campaign, the Korea Securities Depository mails notices to the actual residential addresses of non-receipt shareholders confirmed through the Ministry of Public Administration and Security.

Last year, notices were sent to 9,492 people, less than half of the total 25,349 unclaimed shareholders as of the end of last year. Accordingly, it is pointed out that there is a need to check the criteria for selecting the delivery target and whether the address is confirmed.

Representative Han Min-soo said, “We need to conduct more active campaigns, such as providing text information in cooperation with the three telecommunication companies,” and added, “There are still more than 1 trillion won worth of stocks waiting for their owners, and we need to check whether the current information method and receipt procedures are sufficient.”