Korea’s top 10 conglomerates were found to make up more than half of the nation‘s total stock market value, a report showed Wednesday.

According to corporate tracker CEO Score, the market capitalization of 181 listed companies owned by 10 top conglomerates recorded 778.5 trillion won ($698 billion) as of late last month, with 416 family members owning 70 trillion won. 


The entire listed companies under the 10 top groups accounted for 51.2 percent of the total market price of the Korean stock market whereas the number of the listed companies only made up 8.8 percent of the total. The owner families, who are also the major shareholders, owned 4.7 percent of the total market capitalization.

The listed companies not only includes the subsidiaries but also the pan-group affiliates.

By groups, 42 listed companies under pan-Samsung umbrella topped the market value ranking with 380 trillion won, accounting for 25.4 percent of the total market capitalization.

Pan-Hyundai stood at the second with 40 listed companies with their market value reaching 140 trillion won, making nearly 10 percent of the total.

Pan-LG, which has 25 listed companies, took the third spot with the market value of 86 trillion won, taking up 5.8 percent of the stock market.

The rest included SK, Lotte, Hanhwa, Hyosung, GS, Hanjin and Doosan.

By individual groups, Samsung Group accounted for 23.2 percent of the total market capitalization with 347 trillion won, followed by Hyundai Motor Group with 100 trillion won.

SK Group stood at the third with 81 trillion won, followed by LG Group and Lotte Group, with 77 trillion won and 24 trillion won, respectively.

By major shareholders’ families, Samsung still topped the ranking with 26 members owning 29 trillion won of the market value of 24 listed companies. This accounts for 2 percent of Korea’s total market capitalization.

Hyundai followed the next with 70 major shareholders owning 13.6 trillion won of 32 listed companies’ value.

About 130 LG major shareholders owning 7.7 trillion won of the shares ranked at the third, followed by SK with 5 trillion won.

By Lee Hyun-jeong  (rene@heraldcorp.com)