Samsung heir becomes richest Korean

Lee Jae-yong, the only son of the late Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee, has become the wealthiest entrepreneur in South Korea, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index on Thursday.

The index shows a ranking of 500 richest people around the world. The list of the world’s top billionaires, compiled by media firm Bloomberg, showed the junior Lee owns $12.6 billion of assets as of May 12 to take the 170th spot among the 500 richest people.

He inherited shares of Samsung Group affiliates, including tech giant Samsung Electronics, life insurance firm Samsung Life Insurance, and IT solutions developer Samsung SDS, according to a regulatory filing early this month. The inherited shares were worth around 6 trillion won ($5.3 billion). Of the total, Samsung Electronics shares accounted for around 4 trillion won.

Lee was followed by Suh Jung-jin, honorary chairman of drug manufacturer Celltrion and Kim Jung-ju, founder of game developer Nexon. Their assets came in at $10.4 billion in value, respectively. Kim Bum-su, board chairman of mobile messenger firm Kakao, and Hong Ra-hee, the wife of the late Samsung chairman, made the billionaires list with their respective assets standing at $10.3 billion and $7.4 billion.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)