Samsung heirs sign on donation for SNU Hospital

Samsung Electronics and Seoul National University Hospital agreed on Monday to launch an official team to coordinate a 300 billion won ($267 million) donation from the bereaved family of the late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee for children with cancer and rare diseases.

On behalf of the Lees, Samsung Electronics Presidents Sung In-hee and Rhee In-yong, in charge of social contributions and corporate relations, attended the ceremony with Seoul National University Hospital President Kim Yon-su and Seoul National University Children’s Hospital President Kim Han-suk.

They named the donation “Lee Kun-hee’s support for children with cancers and rare diseases.”

A working-level team to carry out the donation project will be launched by September and will begin its work in November.

The president of Seoul National University Children’s Hospital will be in charge of the project.

“We deeply thank the late Chairman Lee, and we will establish an unprecedented medical platform for children in order to honor the donor’s will,” said President Kim Yon-su of SNU Hospital.

Last week the Samsung owner family announced its plans to donate 1 trillion won to improve the country’s medical infrastructure, including the 300 billion won for sick children, as they prepared to inherit the chairman’s assets, estimated to be worth nearly 30 trillion won in total, including high-profile artworks.

The family decided to return about 60 percent of the chairman’s assets to society, also donating the artworks to national museums. They will have to pay around 12 trillion won in inheritance taxes.

SNU will use the fund to treat around 17,000 children fighting cancer and rare diseases for the next 10 years.

“The late chairman used to say it was worth paying several billions of won, if he could save as many as kids in critical condition,” said Samsung President Sung.

On Friday, the Lee family reported their plans for Chairman Lee’s stocks to the country’s tax authorities.

Lee Jae-yong, vice chairman of global tech titan Samsung Electronics and the eldest son of the late chairman, received 50 percent of the chairman’s stocks in Samsung Life Insurance, which makes him South Korea’s richest stockholder.

The value of Lee Jae-yong’s stock holdings stood at 15.62 trillion won as of Friday.

His mother and his two sisters ranked second to fourth on the list, according to the CXO Institute. Kim Beom-su, founder and chief of Korea’s top mobile messenger operator, Kakao Corp., dropped to fifth place. 

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)