Lee Jae-yong Tops Domestic Stock Rich List at Year-End... Three-Way Race with Kim Beom-su and Seo Jung-jin

Lee Jae-yong, Vice Chairman of Samsung Electronics

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] Lee Jae-yong, Vice Chairman of Samsung Electronics, emerged as the richest stockholder among domestic group heads at the end of last year. After the death of the late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee, the undisputed top spot for the richest stockholder in Korea disappeared, and last year, Vice Chairman Lee, Kim Beom-su, Chairman of Kakao, and Seo Jung-jin, Honorary Chairman of Celltrion, competed closely for this position.

On the 3rd, the Korea CXO Research Institute, specializing in corporate analysis, announced this after analyzing changes in the stock assets of the heads of the top 50 domestic groups as of December 30 compared to January 4 of last year. The survey targeted 38 out of 50 group heads who were designated as the same person (natural person) by the Fair Trade Commission among corporate groups and who held stocks in listed companies. The total stock valuation of these 38 group heads was 64.5545 trillion KRW at the beginning of January last year and 64.6028 trillion KRW at the end of December, showing almost no significant change.

The institute analyzed that the top three rankings of stock assets among the heads of the top 50 domestic groups all changed last year. Seo, the honorary chairman who was the richest stockholder at the beginning of last year, saw his stock value decrease by more than 40% over the past year, dropping to third place by the end of the year. On the other hand, Vice Chairman Lee was ranked second with stocks valued at around 9 trillion KRW in early January last year, but after inheriting Chairman Lee’s shares in April, his stock holdings expanded to about 14 trillion KRW by the end of the year, securing the top spot among domestic stockholders. During the same period, Chairman Kim moved up from third to second place and even briefly held the top spot last year.

Oh Il-seon, Director of the Korea CXO Research Institute, said, "For a long time, the number one stockholder in Korea was uniquely maintained by Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee, but going forward, Vice Chairman Lee, Chairman Kim, and Honorary Chairman Seo will fiercely compete in a three-way battle for the top spot among domestic stockholders. In particular, the stock values of Samsung Electronics, Kakao, and Celltrion will significantly influence the rankings of the richest stockholders among domestic group heads."

Meanwhile, among the heads of the top 50 domestic groups, Chairman Jang Se-ju of Dongkuk Steel and Chairman Chung Mong-jin of KCC saw their stock values increase by more than 60% from early to late last year, while Chairman Koo Kwang-mo of LG showed a contrasting decline of over 20%, according to the institute. Chairman Seo Kyung-bae of Amorepacific also experienced a decrease in stock valuation by more than 670 billion KRW, Chairman Shin Dong-bin of Lotte saw his stock valuation drop by 13.6% (from 807.3 billion KRW in early January to 697.6 billion KRW at the end of December), and Chairman Lee Jae-hyun of CJ also saw an 8.8% reduction in stock assets.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.