SEOUL, Aug. 8 (Korea Bizwire) – Succession of power almost always breeds trouble and conflict. The same applies to Korean chaebol, family-owned business conglomerates, with retail giant Lotte’s family feud pitting the company founder’s two sons against each other being the latest example of a business dispute over a company’s management rights. Such discord, however interesting [...]
SEOUL, June 15 (Korea Bizwire) – Dividend payments to the owners of South Korea’s top 10 conglomerates were tallied at 1.46 trillion won (US$1.24 billion) for the past five years, despite their firms’ sluggish earnings, data showed Wednesday. Samsung Electronics Co. Chairman Lee Kun-hee, South Korea’s richest man, topped the list with a total of [...]
SEOUL, March 31 (Korea Bizwire) – Family-run companies were found to generate higher profitability compared to rivals, a report said on Thursday, claiming that involvement by “owner” families leads to good business results. According to the report compiled by the Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI), 4,683 family-controlled firms here posted a return on asset (ROA) ratio [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 26 (Korea Bizwire) - More than 20 percent of South Korean conglomerates’ affiliates were found to be unprofitable and highly indebted last year, market data showed Monday, a revelation that comes amid the government’s push to prevent any fallout on the economy from their sudden collapse. The number of “zombie companies,” which can’t generate [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 20 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s top family-controlled conglomerates, known here as chaebol, are scrambling to ramp up their community outreach programs in a bid to burnish their image and quell escalating anti-chaebol sentiment sparked by a nasty power struggle at Lotte Group. Lotte, the fifth-largest conglomerate, remains embroiled in a family feud [...]
“This crisis happened as we failed to put in many efforts to improve our governance structure and bolster corporate transparency during the group’s growth. We will resolutely reform the agendas that have raised concerns among the people of Korea, the government, our shareholders, employees and contractors.” “I will push for the listing of Hotel Lotte, [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — The heads of South Korea’s major business groups own puny stakes in their affiliates, but a complex cross-shareholding structure allows their families to exercise nearly uncontrolled power over the sprawling business empires, data showed Thursday. In South Korea’s business scene, a “group” does not refers to a legal entity, [...]
SEOUL, June 2 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s top family-controlled conglomerates, known here as chaebol, have recently announced plans to merge their key units, in what is widely seen as a play to simplify their governance structures and help pave the way for power transfers. Betting such moves will trigger a bull run for the [...]
SEOUL, April 27 (Korea Bizwire) — System integrators affiliated with South Korea’s family-run business groups increased internal transactions in 2014 despite the government’s efforts to curb excessive groupwide trades, data showed Monday. Internal transactions of the top 20 system integration subsidiaries of the family-run conglomerates, locally called chaebol, came to 8.36 trillion won (US$7.74 billion) [...]
SEOUL, April 20 (Korea Bizwire) – Korea’s two largest business groups, Samsung Group and Hyundai Motor Group, accounted for a significant portion of the net profits of the top 30 groups in Korea, by generating more than four fifths of their total earnings. Korea generally categorizes the top 30 business groups as representing the Korean economy, [...]