The average corporate age of South Korea's 500 largest businesses stood at 31.8 years, an indication of their growing maturity.
   
According to data released Wednesday by CEO Score, an online corporate productivity evaluation site, the average age tallied represents a 4.9-year increase compared to 10 years earlier. 
   
Some 32.8 percent of them were set up less than 20 years ago, while 63 percent were spun off by older and larger companies or conglomerates. Only 12 percent were established from scratch and not associated with any business group.
   
Naver, the country's largest portal operator, and game developer NCsoft Corp. belong to the last group.
   
Among companies on the list, 108 were between 10 and 20 years old, making this the single largest group.
   
Companies between 10 and 20 years old include Hyundai Glovis, Homeplus and LG Household & Health Care.
   
CEO Score said there were some 88 companies set up 40 to 50 years ago, making this the second largest grouping. These cover such everyday brands such as Samsung Electronics, POSCO, Hyundai Motor, Hyundai Heavy Industries and Lotte Shopping.
   
This was followed by 79 companies that were founded 20 to 30 years ago, with 75 being between 30 and 40 years old.
   
There were 56 that were less than a decade old, with SK Innovation and Samsung Display the most prominent among them, compared to 54 being between 50 and 60 years old. 
   
There were 30 companies that were 60 to 70 years old.
   
The oldest company is Woori Bank, which was set up in 1899. Yuhan Corp. is 88 years old and Doosan is 81. (Yonhap)