Samsung Electronics' shares worth $1.1 billion sold in block deal

Samsung Electronics shares worth about $1.1 billion were sold in a block deal on Thursday, according to a document, which some analysts attributed to the Samsung conglomerate's controlling family raising cash to meet a big tax bill.

About 19.9 million Samsung shares were sold by Kookmin Bank at 68,800 won per share, a discount of 2.4% to Wednesday's closing price of 70,500 won, a term sheet of the deal seen by Reuters showed.

Samsung Electronics did not have a comment on the sale.

But the shares on sale matched the amount that Hong Ra-hee, mother of Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee