Number of firms with sales of over W1tr drops in 2020 amid pandemic

The number of South Korean firms with sales of 1 trillion won ($882 million) or more edged down in 2020 from a year earlier amid the coronavirus pandemic, a corporate tracker said Monday.

A total of 204 local companies posted sales of 1 trillion won or more last year, down five from the previous year, according to the CXO Institute.

It represents the first drop in the number in five years. The figure rose from 184 in 2016 to 187 in 2017, 199 in 2018 and 209 in 2019.

Namyang Dairy Products Co., Shinsegae Engineering & Construction Co., Daewoong Pharmaceutical Co. and 22 other corporations dropped out of the 1 trillion-won sales club.

Samsung Biologics Co., a biopharmaceutical unit of South Korea's top conglomerate Samsung Group, biopharmaceutical giant Celltrion Inc. and 18 other firms newly joined the club.

The number of companies with sales of 10 trillion won or more stood at 30 last year, down two from a year earlier.

South Korea's 1,000 largest firms by sales posted a combined top line of 148.9 trillion won in 2020, 1.3 percent smaller than the prior year.

Global tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. chalked up 236 trillion won in consolidated sales last year, retaining the top spot among local firms for 19 years running, according to the CXO Institute. (Yonhap)