Samsung, Hyundai Motor and Lotte, the top three chaebol of South Korea, possess landmarks in Gangnam, the most expensive area in the country. Here is a look at the size and scope of their properties.
Hyundai Motor Group: Global Business Center
 |
Hyundai Motor Group chairman Chung Mong-koo |
Hyundai Motor Group purchased the former 79,431 square meter KEPCO property located in Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu, for 10.5 trillion won last year, and will have full ownership of the property this September. The conglomerate’s two subsidiaries -- Hyundai Glovis and Hyundai WIA -- have already moved into the former KEPCO building this year.
Hyundai Motor Group chairman Chung Mong-koo, who Forbes listed as the fifth richest in Korea with $4 billion, announced at the New Year’s meeting that it will build a 115-story building that would be 571 meters tall with a total area of 960 square meters.
Chung and vice chairman Chung Eui-sun plan to relocate their office to the 115th and 114th floor of the new high-rise building, respectively, once construction is complete.
Lotte Group: Lotte World Tower & Lotte World Mall
 |
Lotte Group chairman Shin Dong-bin |
Lotte World Tower & Lotte World Mall, also called Second Lotte World, is located in Songpa-gu and currently under construction. The Lotte World Tower is planned to be 555 meters and 123 stories tall.
Lotte Group founder Shin Kyuk-ho, who currently has stock assets of 311.4 billion won, is expected to purchase the 114th floor for private residence once construction is completed near the end of 2016.
Lotte Group chairman Shin Dong-bin, the second son of the founder also plans to move his office to the Lotte World Tower. The junior Shin currently has assets of $1.5 billion.
The company purchased this 87,182 square meter land area in 1987 for 100 billion won, and is now worth 3.14 trillion won.
Samsung Group: Samsung Towers
 |
Samsung Group vice chairman Lee Jay-yong |
Samsung Group has a cluster of high-rise buildings in Seocho-gu called “Samsung Towers.” Samsung Towers A, B and C are company buildings for Samsung Life, Samsung C&T and Samsung Electronics, respectively.
The Samsung towers are 25,016 square meters in total and are currently worth 874 billion won. Tower A is 34 stories high, and towers B and C are 32 and 44 stories high, respectively.
Tower C also holds the office of Samsung Group vice chairman Lee Jae-yong on the 41st floor and of chairman Lee Kun-hee on the 42nd floor.
Although their offices are not as high up as that of other conglomerates, they have the highest amount of assets of them all.
Bloomberg calculated Lee Jae-yong’s current assets at $7.86 billion and Lee Kun-hee’s at $11.56 billion.
By The Korea Herald Superrich Team (
sangyj@heraldcorp.com)
Kwon Nam-keun, Hong Seung-wan, Sung Yeon-jin, Bae Ji-sook, Yoon Hyun-jong, Min Sang-seek, Kim Hyun-il, Sang Youn-joo
