Samsung Electronics' office in southern Seoul (Im Se-jun/The Korea Herald) Samsung Electronics is expected to accelerate its treasury share buyback to fund a special bonus for its chip employees under a tentative labor agreement reached to avert a planned strike, Herald Business reported on Thursday.Under the pending agreement, the company will allocate a special semiconductor performance bonus equivalent to 10.5 percent of business performance earnings. The bonus will be paid in treasury shares over the next 10 years without a cap.Considering the chip giant holds roughly 82 million common treasury shares, based on calculations using its year-end disclosures and subsequent buybacks and sales, Samsung Electronics would likely need to expand treasury share buybacks significantly to fund the new bonus pool, the report said.Under a market estimate projecting Samsung Electronics to log a cumulative operating profit of 300 trillion won ($200 billion) this year, the company would have to payout 31.5 trillion won in treasury shares as the bonus to the Device Solutions division, which houses memory operations.With its 82 million common treasury shares valued at 22.65 trillion won based on Wednesday’s closing price, Samsung Electronics' current treasury share holdings would not be sufficient to fund the bonus.Samsung Electronics has consistently retired treasury shares in recent years to boost shareholder returns.This year, the company plans to retire about 87 million treasury shares in the first half alone, including 73 million common shares and 13.6 million preferred shares slated for cancellation under a March 31 announcement.Combined with the planned cancellations, the company's treasury share holdings are expected to decline further, raising concerns over management control and making additional share buybacks appear inevitable.A Samsung Electronics official reportedly said the company would move to buy back shares if necessary.As of 12:20 p.m., Samsung Electronics shares traded at 295,000 won, advancing 6.97 percent from the previous session.