Choi Jung-woo, POSCO Group Chairman, Ranks 1st... Market Cap Increased by 22 Trillion KRW During Tenure

Leaders Index, Survey of Top 500 Companies by Sales
Naver, SK Hynix, Kakao, and Others Actually Decrease

Choi Jung-woo, Chairman and CEO of POSCO Holdings, ranked first among CEOs who significantly increased the market capitalization of their affiliated companies during their tenure.

On the 5th, Leaders Index, a corporate analysis research institute, analyzed the market capitalization changes during the tenure (from the date of appointment to the 1st of this month) of 393 CEOs from 263 listed companies among the top 500 domestic companies by sales. The average tenure of these CEOs was 5.1 years, and the average market capitalization change rate was -2.5%. For companies that went public or were split after the CEO's appointment, the market capitalization change was investigated based on the listing or split date.

There were 12 CEOs from 9 companies whose market capitalization increased by more than 10 trillion KRW after their appointment. Choi Jung-woo, Chairman of POSCO Holdings, took first place by raising the market capitalization by more than 22 trillion KRW. Chairman Choi was appointed CEO of POSCO in July 2018, and POSCO Holdings, the holding company, was launched in March last year following the physical split of POSCO. At the time of the split, POSCO Holdings’ market capitalization was 25.0226 trillion KRW, which increased by 89.3% (22.3372 trillion KRW) to 47.3599 trillion KRW as of the 1st of this month.

Choi Jung-woo, Chairman of POSCO Group Photo by POSCO Holdings

Joo Jae-hwan and Choi Moon-ho, co-CEOs of EcoPro BM, tied for second place. When they took office in March last year, EcoPro BM’s market capitalization was 8.7896 trillion KRW, which surged by 243.3% (21.3821 trillion KRW) to 30.1717 trillion KRW as of the 1st of this month.

Fourth and fifth places were taken by Choi Jun-young, Vice President and CEO of Kia (18.0764 trillion KRW increase), and Song Ho-sung, CEO of Kia (17.0493 trillion KRW increase), respectively. Following them were Kim Jun-hyung, CEO of POSCO Future M (14.2532 trillion KRW), Ki Woo-sung, Vice Chairman and CEO of Celltrion (14.1281 trillion KRW), Shin Hak-cheol, Vice Chairman and CEO of LG Chem (14.0832 trillion KRW), Chung Eui-sun, Chairman of Hyundai Motor Company (13.2529 trillion KRW), and Jung Yeon-in, CEO of Doosan Enerbility (10.4151 trillion KRW), in that order.

The CEO whose company’s market capitalization decreased the most after appointment was Choi Soo-yeon, CEO of Naver. When CEO Choi took office in March last year, Naver’s market capitalization was 53.9721 trillion KRW, which decreased by 34.8% (18.7836 trillion KRW) to 35.1885 trillion KRW as of the 1st of this month.

Following her were Kim Chang-han, CEO of Krafton (14.6793 trillion KRW decrease), Park Jung-ho, Vice Chairman and CEO of SK Hynix (10.5560 trillion KRW decrease), Hong Eun-taek, CEO of Kakao (10.3297 trillion KRW decrease), and Kwon Young-sik, CEO of Netmarble (10.0087 trillion KRW decrease), all of whom saw significant declines in market capitalization during their tenure.

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