AmorePacific chairman Suh Kyung-bae was selected as Forbes Asia’s 2015 Businessman of the Year on Thursday.
In its latest issue released on Thursday, the magazine explained that Suh inherited his father’s company in 1997 and sold off affiliates unrelated to cosmetics, expanding the highly local Korean cosmetics industry overseas.
It also added that the company, which owns around 20 major brands available in 14 countries, “is winning the hearts of China’s middle-class shoppers.”
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Suh Kyung-bae |
The magazine also emphasized that the group’s revenue increased by 21 percent to $4.5 billion, and that market analysts expect the revenue to reach $4.9 billion this year and $5.8 billion in 2016.
It also mentioned the fact that AmorePacific’s share price has increased 345 percent in the past two years.
Forbes described Suh as becoming a billionaire in 2011 and rising to be the second-wealthiest person in the country with $9.2 billion in assets, and also took note of his detail-oriented attitude. It quoted him as saying, “I always try to learn things with the mind-set of a student as if I was back in school.”
Suh has previously been featured on Forbes Asia’s magazine cover in 2006, and AmorePacific has also been listed 28th on the Forbes 2015 list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies.
By Sang Youn-joo (
sangyj@heraldcorp.com)
