The 2016 Forbes World’s Billionaires list released last month includes 31 Koreans after calculating their personal wealth -- value of listed and unlisted stocks, cash holdings, real estate and artworks.
Most Koreans who made it to the definitive list of the world’s wealthiest people are well-known heads and family members of chaebol such as Samsung, Hyundai, Lotte and SK. However, it also includes nine unfamiliar names.
While it may seem strange that these superrich have managed to avoid the public spotlight, they were able to do so because their wealth comes from unlisted companies.
An unlisted company’s shares are not traded on the stock exchange, freeing it from strict disclosure rules and compliance obligations Therefore, information on unlisted companies is hard to come by, nor are the promoters frequently covered by the media.
Furthermore, unlike listed companies whose value of stocks is updated daily, unlisted shares are only required to reveal company information once a year. Therefore, the actual wealth of the company may be greater than expected, which is true for the nine superrich.
Of the nine, six are self-made billionaires. However, of the remaining 22 on the Forbes list, only four, or 18 percent, were self-made superrich while the others mostly inherited their wealth.
The richest owner of an unlisted company is Smilegate chairman Kwon Hyuk-bin, owning 100 percent stake in the company. Having creating the first person shooter game “Crossfire,” one of the most-played games in the world with great popularity in China, Forbes estimated his net wealth at $3.7 billion.
Ranking ninth in the country’s rich list is investment genius Kim Jung-ju, chairman of NXC, a holding company of Korea’s largest gaming company Nexon. With a current net worth of $2.3 billion with a 48.5 percent stake in NXC, Kim produced the world’s first massively multiplayer online role-playing game “Kingdom of the Winds” in 1996 and proceeded to create hit games such as “Crazyracing Kartrider.”
The country’s 10th richest with $2.2 billion is rental home specializing construction business Booyoung Group chairman Lee Joong-keun. Owning 93.79 percent shares of Booyoung, Lee also owns 91.52 percent of Donggwang Housing Construction, 95 percent of Daehwa City Gas, 87.5 percent of Booyoung Finance, 42.28 percent of Kwangmyeong Construction, and 100 percent of three other construction-related companies, earning him 1.6 trillion won ($1.4 billion) through the eight unlisted companies.
Introducing mutual funds into the domestic stock market and creating a boom of indirect investment, Mirae Asset Financial Group chairman Park Hyeon-joo has a net worth of $2.1 billion, ranking him No. 12 in the country’s rich list. He holds a 60.19 percent stake in Mirae Asset Global Investments, 48.69 percent stake in Mirae Asset Capital, and 48.6 percent stake in Mirae Asset Consulting, worth a total of 1.3 trillion won.
Celltrion Group’s founder and former CEO Seo Jung-jin and Kyobo Life Insurance CEO Shin Chang-jae both have a personal net worth of $1.9 billion. Seo owns 98.86 percent of Celltrion holding company Celltrion Holdings, 71.01 percent of Celltrion GSC, and 53.84 percent of Celltrion Healthcare, worth a total of 763.9 billion won. Meanwhile, Shin, the son of the late Kyobo Life Insurance founder Shin Yong-ho, holds 33.78 percent stake in the insurance firm worth 2.6 trillion won.
New to the billionaire list is Dongwon Group vice chairman Kim Nam-jung with a net worth of $1.5 billion, ranking him No. 19 in the country’s rich list. As the largest shareholder of listed Dongwon F&B with a 71.25 percent stake and unlisted Dongwon Enterprise with a 67.98 percent stake worth 921.5 billion won -- greater than his father Dongwon Group chairman Kim Jae-chul’s share with a 24.5 percent stake – he is a major shareholder of 6 other company subsidiaries that have 22 second-tier subsidiaries, which in turn have 10 third-tier subsidiaries.
One of Korea’s biggest educational companies Kyowon Group chairman Chang Pyung-soon is listed as No. 21 in the country’s richest list with a net worth of $1.3 billion. Holding a 75.68 percent stake in the unlisted company’s shares worth 600.1 billion won, Chang also holds 100 percent of Kyowon Invest. Kyowon Group is known to be the first to exceed the 1-trillion-won mark in revenue from study-aid materials alone in 2009.
Famous for its bakery franchise Paris Baguette, SPC Group chairman Hur Young-in -- the second son of late Samlip General Foods founder Hur Chang-sung -- has a net worth of $1.2 billion. Among SPC Group, the only listed company is Samlip, which has Paris Croissant as its major shareholder, and Hur has a 63.5 percent stake in Paris Croissant, which has shares in seven subsidiaries including Samlip. This amounts to a total of 362.8 billion won calculated according to total ownership interest.
By The Korea Herald Superrich Team (
seoyounglee@heraldcorp.com)
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Hong Seung-wan
Cheon Ye-seon
Seo Jee-yeon
Yoon Hyun-jong
Min Sang-seek
Lee Seo-young
