Seventeen children in South Korea were estimated to own shares of listed firms valued at over 1 billion won ($880,000) as of the end of 2016, data by the Korea Exchange showed Friday.
Of the total aged below 13, seven were from the family of pharmaceutical holding firm Hanmi Science, topping the list by each holding 37.4 billion won in stocks, as of Dec. 28, 2016.
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(Yonhap) |
The seven, aged between 9 and 11, held 612,673 shares each, receiving them through bonus issues or as gifts. They are the grandchildren of Lim Sung-ki, founder of the Seoul-based drug company.
One of the other grandsons of the founder, surnamed Lim, held 38.3 billion won in stocks, but was excluded from the list as he was aged 14 and not deemed a child.
A 12-year-old surnamed Cho, the grandchild of furniture maker Hanssem’s founder Cho Chang-gul, was also among the top. He was found to hold 7.35 billion won in shares of the company.
The data indicated there are 67 children in total holding over 100 million won in shares.
The youngest among them was a child surnamed Kim, born on Jan. 4, 2016. He owned 478 million won in stocks of Kospi-listed detergent maker Miwon Chemicals.
Kim was not the only child shareholder of Miwon Chemicals, as six other children held stock in the company valued at over 100 million won, with one of them, also surnamed Kim, holding some 580 million won in shares.
The data came after the Korea Exchange looked into stocks by major shareholders and their families.
By Son Ji-hyoung (
consnnow@heraldcorp.com)
