SEJONG, Nov. 19 (Korea Bizwire) – The number of family members serving as unregistered executives at family-run conglomerates, or chaebol, has increased, raising concerns about a growing gap between authority and accountability, the antitrust regulator said Wednesday. Since 2010, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has reviewed and released annual reports on the ownership and governance [...]
SEOUL, July 31 (Korea Bizwire) — Over the past year, more than two-thirds of South Korea’s top 50 family-run conglomerates have undergone notable shifts in ownership structure, with approximately 1 trillion won (US$750 million) worth of shares transferred—largely through inheritance and gifts to heirs, signaling a new wave of succession planning. According to corporate tracker [...]
SEOUL, July 15 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s powerful business conglomerates, or chaebol, continued a controversial pattern in 2023: funneling excessive dividends to owner families through privately held affiliates, some of which posted losses, prompting renewed concerns over shareholder inequality and market distortion. According to audit reports filed with the Financial Supervisory Service and reviewed [...]
SEOUL, May 7 (Korea Bizwire) — The Cabinet on Tuesday approved a revision to the rule on the designation of large business groups and their chiefs for a watch list subject to stricter filing and other antitrust regulations, the regulator said. Under current law, conglomerates with total assets exceeding 5 trillion won (US$3.68 billion) are [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — Defying criticism and stiff objections from anti-corruption campaigners, Lee Jae-yong, the de-facto chief of the country’s top conglomerate Samsung was released on parole on Aug. 13, rekindling controversy over lopsided legal “favors” to business moguls here. Lee, the vice chairman of Samsung Electronics Co., the group’s crown jewel, had [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 19 (Korea Bizwire) — Woowa Brothers Corp. CEO Kim Bong-jin has followed in the footsteps of Kakao Corp. founder Kim Beom-su to donate half of his fortune, bringing a pleasant surprise to the public. The decision by these self-made entrepreneurs to donate half of their fortune comes as a stark contrast to other conglomerates, known [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — The offspring of South Korean business group founders are typically promoted to executive positions within five years of joining their parents’ companies, a business research firm showed Wednesday. On average, it took 14.1 years for them to become presidents after starting out. It took an average of 4.8 years [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s antitrust watchdog said Sunday 42 large business groups earned a combined 1.42 trillion won (US$1.29 billion) by selling brand licenses to their affiliates last year amid concerns conglomerate owners could glean profits from such transactions. The 2019 tally marked a 7.6 percent rise from the previous year’s [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — More than half of the second generation of South Korea’s chaebol (conglomerate) families turned out to have married partners from within the chaebol community. According to a survey conducted by corporate tracker CEO Score that looked at the marriages of family members in the nation’s top 55 conglomerates headed [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — There are many ways in which things can go wrong for families who try to preserve their massive wealth for generations to come, like the famous saying, “Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations.” To beat the “shirtsleeves” curse, however, the owner families of South Korea’s leading conglomerates, called chaebol [...]