Late Samsung chief's stock value rises more than 21% this year

The stock value of Lee Kun-hee, the late chief of South Korea's top conglomerate Samsung Group, soared more than 21 percent this year due largely to a surge in the share price of group flagship Samsung Electronics Co., data showed Tuesday.

The value of stocks held by Lee, who died on Oct. 25 after being bedridden following a heart attack in 2014, totaled 21.04 trillion won ($19.4 billion) as of Wednesday, according to the data from market researcher CXO Institute.

It was up 21.1 percent from Lee's stock value of 17.38 trillion won at the start of this year.

The surge in Lee's stock value was attributed mainly to the recent jump in the stock price of Samsung Electronics, in which Lee had a 4.18 percent stake.

Bolstered by expectations for a recovery in global chip demand, Samsung Electronics has recently risen sharply, with its share price closing at an all-time high of 72,900 won on Monday, up 1.96 percent from the prior session.

Lee also owns 20.76 percent in Samsung Life Insurance Co., the leading life insurer in Asia's fourth-largest economy, and 2.88 percent in Samsung C&T Corp., a construction and trading unit.

Lee Jae-yong, the only son of the late Samsung chief and vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, held stocks worth 8.21 trillion won as of Wednesday, up 12.9 percent from the beginning of the year.

Kim Beom-su, founder and chairman of internet giant Kakao, posted the biggest rise in stock value among the chiefs of South Korea's top 50 business groups, with his stock holdings spiking 114 percent from 1.91 trillion won to 4.66 trillion won over the cited period.

The data also showed the combined stock value of 39 conglomerate chiefs came to 67.19 trillion won as of Wednesday, up 16.6 percent from the start of this year. (Yonhap)