Global luxury goods makers have raked in huge profits in South Korea over the past few years on the back of surging demand, but they have not been generous in making social contributions, data showed Thursday.
The combined revenue of 15 global luxury makers in South Korea, including a local unit of the world's top luxury goods maker LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, reached 3.9 trillion won (US$3.6 billion) in 2010, compared with 1.4 trillion won in 2005, according to the data compiled by research firm Chaebul.com.
The companies also saw their net profit spike 3.6-fold to 236.4 billion won over the six-year period, the data showed.
The data included the financial statements of fashion powerhouses such as Gucci and Prada as well as big-name automakers such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz.
Despite their stellar profit growth in Asia's fourth-largest economy, the luxury brands were reluctant to increase donations while paying out big dividends to their own countries, the data showed.
The combined donations made during the cited period by the 15 tallied firms totaled 2.4 billion won, or 0.3 percent of their net profit, according to the data.
By company, BMW Korea donated around 1.5 billion won, followed by Burberry Korea with 190 million won and Mercedes-Benz Korea with 170 million won.
The local units of three luxury brands - Prada, Swatch Group and Bvlgari - did not make any donations during the cited period, the data showed.
In contrast, the tallied companies sent a lion's share of their profit earned from South Korea to their headquarters.
The data showed that a total of 353.3 billion won, or 47.9 percent of their net profit, was doled out as dividends to their respective headquarters.
The local units of French cosmetics maker Sisley and German automaker Mercedes-Benz earmarked as much as 86.4 percent and 86.3 percent of their respective profits as dividends, according to the data. (Yonhap News)
