Seoul: Samsung Group’s two insurance firms said on Wednesday they will sell $1.3 billion (Dh4.7 billion) worth of stock in the conglomerate’s biggest earner, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, to maintain regulatory compliance. Samsung Life Insurance Co Ltd and Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Co Ltd separately said their electronics affiliate’s current policy of cancelling its own shares to raise the value of investors’ holdings risks pushing their own holdings beyond regulatory limits. The announcements come at a time when regulators are questioning conglomerates’ cross-shareholding arrangements, saying the weblike ownership structures undermine corporate governance by allowing founding families to control business empires with only direct minority stakes in key units. In South Korea, conglomerates’ financial arms are required to limit their combined stake in a non-financial affiliate to 10 per cent.