Samsung Electronics’ board of directors on Thursday approved plans to cancel about 49 trillion won ($43.3 billion) worth of treasury shares as part of efforts to raise value for shareholders, the company announced.

The tech titan cited a strong balance sheet and an increase in cash holdings as reasons for reducing the need to hold treasury shares that the company had retained as a financial resource for possible mergers and acquisitions, as well as the hiring of talented professionals.

“More importantly, today’s decision reflects Samsung’s ongoing commitment to enhancing sustainable long-term value for shareholders,” the company said in a statement.

The company currently holds 17,981,686 common shares, which account for 2.9 percent of outstanding common stock, and 3,229,693 preferred shares, or 15.9 percent of outstanding preferred stock, in treasury stock.

The total value of existing treasury shares stands at around 40 trillion won. Considering the huge amount, the company decided to cancel the shares in two stages to minimize impact on the financial market.

In the first stage, the company on Thursday canceled 50 percent of the holding, which is equivalent to about 9 million common shares and about 1.6 million preferred shares.

The remainder will be canceled after the board’s approval in 2018.

As announced in January, Samsung was planning to purchase another 9.3 trillion won worth of treasury shares and cancel them this year. On April 12, the company bought and sold 1.02 million common shares and 255,000 preferred shares, totaling 2.45 trillion won.

The company plans to cancel 900,000 common shares and 225,000 preferred shares Friday.

The cancellation will be completed in the next three months.

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)