자사주 (jasaju)

A company's own shares that it has bought back and holds.

자사주 (jasaju) are treasury shares: shares a company has bought back from the market and holds itself. Treasury shares have no votes and get no dividends while the company holds them.

A buyback (자사주 매입) supports the share price, but in Korea companies have often kept bought-back shares instead of cancelling them, and could later sell them or use them in deals. Cancelling them (자사주 소각) is what permanently reduces the share count. Rules on treasury shares have been under review as part of Korea's corporate governance reforms, so check the latest filings.

Also called: share buyback · stock repurchase · 자기주식