Samsung Life Insurance Earnings: Still No Visibility on Full-Year Dividend Number

We retain our fair value estimate of KRW 77,000 for Samsung Life Insurance, equivalent to 0.32 times book value as of June 2023 and 9.1 times our earnings forecast for 2023. We continue to view Samsung Life as a relatively lackluster investment due to its chronically low return on equity (average of only 5% since its IPO in 2010), but see the shares as undervalued at their current price of 0.29 times book value. We think better visibility into future dividend increases could be a catalyst for revaluation, but 2023 interim earnings—the second quarter Samsung Life has reported under new IFRS 17 accounting—did not provide any news here. Our forecast remains for dividends of KRW 3,300 per share for 2023 (2022: KRW 3,000), increasing by KRW 200 annually thereafter.