Korea's forgotten fortune: $1.1 bil. in shares left unclaimed

Nearly 1.5 trillion won ($1.1 billion) worth of shares held by the Korea Securities Depository (KSD) remain unclaimed by some 26,000 shareholders, data showed Thursday. According to data released by Rep. Han Min-soo of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, the KSD held 800.84 million unclaimed shares worth a combined 1.47 trillion won as of the end of August. Unclaimed shares typically arise when shareholders fail to claim shares issued through rights offerings, bonus issues or stock dividends. Shareholders may be unaware of the newly issued shares or miss notifications after changing their addresses. In such cases, the shares are held by the KSD or other designated transfer agents until their rightful owners claim them. The value of unclaimed shares rose by about 26.4 billion won in the first eight months of this year, from 1.44 trillion won at the end of last year, when 763.54 million shares remained unclaimed. The number of shareholders with unclaimed shares also increased by 931, from 25,349 at the end of last year to 26,280 as of August. The figure included 22,526 individual sharehol