Top 100 Domestic Companies' Economic Contribution Surpasses 1,500 Trillion Won... Hyundai Motor Exceeds 100 Trillion Won for the First Time

CEO Score, Economic Contribution Survey of Top 100 Companies by Sales
Samsung Electronics Ranks 1st

Despite challenging economic conditions last year, the economic contribution of Korea's top 100 companies increased by 31 trillion KRW from the previous year, reaching 1,526 trillion KRW. Samsung Electronics maintained its position as the top contributor in terms of economic contribution, while Hyundai Motor was the only company among the top 100 to increase its contribution by more than 10 trillion KRW, surpassing 100 trillion KRW for the first time.

On the 10th, CEO Score, a corporate data research institute, surveyed the top 100 companies by sales (excluding public enterprises and financial institutions) among the top 500 companies, calculating their economic contributions. The economic contribution of these companies last year was 1,526.2789 trillion KRW, a 2.1% (31.4871 trillion KRW) increase from the previous year.

Economic contribution refers to the total economic value created by a company’s business activities, representing the sum of costs paid by the company to stakeholders such as partners, employees, government, shareholders, creditors, and society.

[Provided by CEO Score]

During the same period, the total sales of the top 100 companies amounted to 1,958.0755 trillion KRW, a 1.7% (33.6459 trillion KRW) decrease from the previous year. Although total sales of the top 100 companies experienced negative growth due to global economic downturns, export declines, and sluggish domestic demand, their overall contribution to the Korean economy slightly increased.

First, the economic contribution created through partner companies by the top 100 companies last year was 1,277.1816 trillion KRW, up 0.8% (10.4473 trillion KRW) from the previous year. Partner company economic contribution refers to the costs paid to partners for raw materials, services, and other purchases.

The contribution to employees, including salaries, retirement benefits, and welfare expenses, totaled 182.9845 trillion KRW last year, a 5.9% (10.1816 trillion KRW) increase from the previous year. Additionally, government contributions, composed of corporate taxes, taxes, and public charges, amounted to 15.427 trillion KRW, up 12.1% (1.6596 trillion KRW) from the previous year.

Creditor contributions, which are interest expenses paid to financial institutions, surged by 51.1% (7.3943 trillion KRW) to 21.8672 trillion KRW last year. This is attributed to the rise in the base interest rate following the end of the COVID-19 endemic in 2022, which revived the real economy. In fact, the Bank of Korea’s base interest rate sharply increased from 1.25% in January 2022 to 3.50% in January 2023, and the high interest rate trend continues.

Other contributions include shareholder contributions, such as cash dividends and treasury stock cancellations, which rose 6.1% (1.5757 trillion KRW) to 27.4093 trillion KRW, and social contributions, including donations, which expanded 19.4% (228.5 billion KRW) to 1.4092 trillion KRW.

By company, Samsung Electronics had the highest economic contribution at 147.171 trillion KRW, followed by Hyundai Motor, which surpassed 100 trillion KRW for the first time with 111.3898 trillion KRW, ranking second. The top 10 companies by economic contribution also included Kia (73.8867 trillion KRW), LG Electronics (71.5801 trillion KRW), Hyundai Mobis (55.4026 trillion KRW), GS Caltex (46.4662 trillion KRW), LG Chem (44.0608 trillion KRW), SK Energy (41.4976 trillion KRW), Samsung C&T (37.5925 trillion KRW), and S-Oil (31.6854 trillion KRW).

Among the top 100 companies, Hyundai Motor showed the largest increase in economic contribution last year. Notably, Hyundai Motor Group made significant strides with five companies?Hyundai Motor, Hyundai Mobis, Hyundai Engineering & Construction, Kia, and Hyundai Engineering?ranking among the top 10 companies with the largest increases in economic contribution. Hyundai Motor’s economic contribution rose by 16.205 trillion KRW from 95.1848 trillion KRW in 2022 to 111.3898 trillion KRW last year. During the same period, increases were also recorded by Hyundai Mobis (7.4157 trillion KRW), Hyundai Engineering & Construction (6.9619 trillion KRW), LG Energy Solution (6.0389 trillion KRW), Kia (5.1216 trillion KRW), Hanwha (5.027 trillion KRW), SK On (4.9161 trillion KRW), Hyundai Engineering (4.1149 trillion KRW), Samsung SDI (2.4922 trillion KRW), and KG Chemical (2.4896 trillion KRW).

Conversely, GS Caltex recorded the largest decrease in economic contribution last year, dropping by 8.2605 trillion KRW. This was followed by S-Oil (-5.8854 trillion KRW), HD Hyundai Oilbank (-5.4462 trillion KRW), POSCO International (-4.9779 trillion KRW), SK Energy (-4.7519 trillion KRW), LX International (-4.1654 trillion KRW), LG Display (-4.0312 trillion KRW), Samsung SDS (-3.658 trillion KRW), Lotte Chemical (-3.2264 trillion KRW), and HD Hyundai Chemical (-2.0551 trillion KRW). The decline is mainly attributed to deteriorating performance in refining and petrochemical companies due to rising international oil prices, which led to a sharp drop in government contributions such as corporate taxes. The petrochemical sector’s economic contribution last year was 328.7827 trillion KRW, down 20.8878 trillion KRW from the previous year.

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