(image: KobizMedia/ Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, May 22 (Korea Bizwire) — Asset size of South Korea’s top four business conglomerates grew by more than 30 percent over the past five years, a corporate information provider said Sunday.
Data provided by Chaebul.com showed combined assets of Samsung, Hyundai Motor, SK and LG stood at 864.9 trillion won as of end 2016, up 33.5 percent compared to 647.6 trillion won in late 2011.
In the same period, assets of the country’s 30 largest conglomerates backtracked from 1,642.5 trillion won to 1,317.8 trillion won, a 24.6 percent drop.
Of the four, assets belonging to Samsung, the country’s No. 1 family-run conglomerate or chaebol, totaled 363.2 trillion won in late 2016, a surge of 42 percent from five years earlier.
Samsung Group includes Samsung Electronics Co. the world’s largest manufacturer of smartphones and memory chips.
Hyundai Motor Group, that counts Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp. as its flagships, had assets worth 218.6 trillion won, an increase of 41.4 percent.
Chaebul.com said assets belonging to SK and LG grew 25.1 percent and 11.5 percent, respectively, to 170.7 trillion won and 112.3 trillion won.
“The changes clearly show greater concentration of wealth for the largest of the country’s conglomerates,” it said.
The conglomerate research firm added that in the five years, total sales and net income of the big four did fall 0.9 percent and 7 percent, each, to 690.4 trillion won and 37.8 trillion won, but the aggregate value of their listed stock soared 27.7 percent to 663.2 trillion won from 519.5 trillion won.
Despite the dip, the numbers translate into the four largest conglomerates accounting for 54.6 percent of all sales reported by the 30 top big business groups in 2016, up 2 percentage points from 2011.
In terms of net income Samsung, Hyundai, SK and LG made up 46.8 percent of the total last year.
Related to the growth of the biggest groups, local observers said the new liberal Moon Jae-in administration may take a firmer stance on big companies going forward.
Big companies have in the past taken flak for using their superior market positions to monopolize economic control that has adversely affected the growth of smaller companies, and distorted the free market.
(Yonhap)
