Top 30 conglomerates' investment dips 1.9 pct last year: report

Combined investment made by South Korea's top 30 conglomerates contracted 1.9 percent in 2013 as weaker profits affected corporate outlays, a report by an online business productivity evaluation firm showed Wednesday.

According to CEO Score, tangible and intangible asset investments made by big businesses reached 95.8 trillion won ($89 billion), from 97.7 trillion won a year earlier. The numbers do not include research and development spending.

The researcher said while their investments hovered at an average 20 trillion won per quarter in the January-September period, with them jumping to 24 trillion won in the last three months.

While investments declined overall due to ailing economic conditions, those of Samsung and SK groups rose sharply.

Investments made by Samsung, the country's largest conglomerate that has Samsung Electronics Co. under its wing, rose 6 percent on-year to 28.7 trillion won from 27 trillion won.

SK's investment stood at a little over 12.2 trillion won, a gain of 11.3 percent from a year earlier.

On the other hand, investments by Hyundai Motor Group stood at 10.8 trillion won, down 5.3 percent from 11.4 trillion won, while LG's investment contracted 20.6 percent to 9.4 trillion from 11.9 trillion won.

POSCO, the country's leading steelmaker invested 8.2 trillion won or 21.4 percent less than the year before, while Lotte's numbers were effectively unchanged.

Among the 30 groups, 12 increased investments, 16 spent less and one remained unchanged.

The latest report, meanwhile, showed that Samsung, SK and Hyundai Motor accounted for 54 percent of all investments made last year. (Yonhap)