A flag of Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest maker of computer memory chips and smartphones, flutters outside its headquarters in Seoul on July 28, 2022. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Oct. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — More than half of the government’s high-ranking officials own shares of listed companies, and the most popular stock is Samsung Electronics Co., a market research firm said Thursday.
Leaders Index analyzed the portfolio of stocks owned by 118 higher than vice minister-level officials who disclosed their wealth.
Among them, 57 percent or 67 officials owned stocks of listed companies under their own name or under the name of their spouse or children.
The value of the stocks owned by high-ranking officials amounted to 13.48 billion won (US$9.42 million) based on closing prices from Oct. 7.
The total number of companies they invested in came to 654, including 523 domestic firms and 131 foreign firms.
Samsung shares were held by 60 of the high-ranking officials, who collectively owned 24,916 shares.
The next most popular stocks were Kakao Corp., whose shares were owned by 22 officials, followed by Naver Corp. and Apple Inc., whose shares were owned by 19 officials each. U.S. graphics chip giant Nvidia Corp. ranked fifth (16 officials).
Following them were Hyundai Motor Co. (15), SK hynix Inc. (12), Tesla Inc. (11), Korean Air Lines Co., Kakao Pay Corp., Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc., the holding company of Google Inc. (10 each).
In the meantime, half of the top ten favored stocks were U.S. companies.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
