KOSDAQ rally yields individuals with W100b stocks

Recent strides in South Korea’s secondary stock trading board, KOSDAQ, have led to a significant rise in the number of shareholders who own more than 100 billion won ($92.5 million) in stock value, according to data from a market tracking agency.

After the KOSDAQ index exceeded the 700-point mark for the first time in seven years on Friday, a total of 64 shareholders held stocks worth more than 100 billion won, the highest figure ever recorded, according to Chaebul.com.

At the beginning of this year, only 46 people were considered as such stock-rich shareholders. As of Friday, 18 more joined the list thanks to a new high in the KOSDAQ driven by a 29-percent index increase over the first three months of 2015.

Kim Pan-gil, chairman of Sansung Life & Science, the owner of the popular cosmetic brand Leaders Cosmetics, saw the value of his holdings increase by 278.6 percent, from 98.2 billion won in the beginning of this year to 371.8 billion won as of Friday.

Several others saw their shares rise in value by a large margin during the same period, including Daehan New Pharm chairman Lee Wan-jin from 69.4 billion to 140.2 billion won.

ViroMed CEO Kim Sun-young’s stocks rose from 80.7 billion to 130.7 billion won in value while Kona I vice chairman Cho Jung-il’s holdings expanded from 88 billion to 122.9 billion won, among others.

The richest shareholder on the tech-laden KOSDAQ market was Kim Beom-su, chairman of Korea’s IT giant Daum Kakao Corp. with stock holdings valued at 1.44 trillion won. Kim is the founder of Korea’s most popular mobile messenger KakaoTalk.

Kim Sang-hun, chairman of Dongsuh Corp. held the second-largest holdings with 669 billion won, followed by chairman of Dongsuh Food Corp. Kim Suk-soo with 653 billion won.

Fueled by strong offshore buying, the KOSDAQ index saw a sharp climb this year, closing at 706.90 points on Friday, a significant increase in comparison to 546.01 points on Jan. 2.

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)