Suh Kyung-bae, chairman of Amore Pacific Group, the country's top cosmetics maker, overtook Samsung Group's heir-apparent Wednesday to become South Korea's second-richest man in stock value, market data showed.

At the end of market closing, Suh's stocks were valued at 8.457 trillion won ($7.64 billion), up 43.7 percent from 5.88 trillion won at end-December, according to the data.

The value of shares owned by Lee Jay-yong, the only son of the Samsung Group chief, totaled 8.454 trillion won, down 2.3 percent from the end of last year.

Shares of Amore Pacific closed 2.9 percent higher Wednesday at 3,374,000 won on the main KOSPI bourse, while the market edged up

0.07 percent. Samsung Electronics added 0.61 percent to close at 1,485,000 won.

The shares of the cosmetics giant have been climbing as its business thrives on demand from China and other Asian markets. It decided earlier this month to split its stock to boost circulation by making the shares more affordable to retail investors.

But Suh still lags far behind Lee Kun-hee, the de facto head of the Samsung empire who has been hospitalized since May 2014. Lee's shares were valued at 12.22 trillion won.

Suh has already bypassed Chung Mong-koo, the owner of Hyundai Motor Group, the world's fifth-biggest automotive conglomerate, whose stocks were worth 5.3 trillion won as of Wednesday. (Yonhap)