Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong takes the stage at an event marking the 25th anniversary of NVIDIA’s GeForce GPU series, held at COEX in Seoul on October 30. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — Samsung Electronics Co. Chairman Lee Jae-yong retained the top spot among South Korea’s stock-rich individuals, with his equity holdings increasing sharply over the past year amid a strong rally in the local stock market, industry data showed Wednesday.
The top 100 shareholders of listed companies held shares worth a combined 177.2 trillion won (US$119.6 billion) as of Friday, up 64.6 percent from 107.6 trillion won at the end of last year, according to the data by corporate tracker CEO Score.
Lee’s stock value nearly doubled to 23.4 trillion won from 12.3 trillion won over the cited, period driven by sharp gains in shares of Samsung Group affiliates.
His holdings in Samsung Electronics climbed to 10.4 trillion won from 5.2 trillion won, while the stock value of Samsung C&T Corp. and Samsung Life Insurance Co. rose 116.9 percent and 63.5 percent, respectively.
His stock value is expected to expand further as he is set to inherit a 1.06 percent stake in Samsung C&T owned by his mother, Hong Ra-hee, director of the Leeum Museum of Art and widow of late Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee, next month.
Cho Jung-ho, chairman of Meritz Financial Group, ranked second with 10.7 trillion in stock value, up from 10.2 trillion won at end-2024.
Members of the Samsung founding family came next. Hong placed third with 9.8 trillion won, followed by her daughters Lee Boo-jin, chief executive officer of Samsung Group’s hotel and retail affiliate Hotel Shilla, with 8.8 trillion won, and Lee Seo-hyun, president of Samsung C&T’s fashion division, with 8.2 trillion won.
Bang Si-hyuk, chairman and founder of K-pop powerhouse Hybe Co., ranked 10th with 4.1 trillion won in stock value.
Meanwhile, three members of K-pop supergroup BTS — Jimin, V and Jungkook — were included in a separate list of the top 100 young stock-rich individuals.
(Yonhap)
