Shares of Samsung Chairman Family Reaches Over 8 Trillion Won

The nation’s 59 families were reported to have shares of more than 1 trillion won.

According to Media Equitable, an online research firm tracking the changes of large shareholders, on Sunday, the family of Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee was ranked the richest and the worth of their shares increased 671.6 billion won to 3. 87 trillion won from a year ago. The reason for the increase was analyzed that despite the plunge in share prices of major listed companies like Samsung Electronics, unlisted Samsung Life Insurance made a huge profit, thereby helping the share evaluation surge.

The listed and registered shares that the head of the group and his immediate family own were calculated with the closing prices on Jan. 20, while other unlisted shares were calculated in net worth.

Ranked behind Samsung Chairman’s family, was the family of Lotte Group Chairman Shin Kyuk-ho, whose fortune reaches 2.87 trillion won, up 360 billion won from a year ago, followed by Shinsegae Department Store Group Chairman Lee Myung-hee`s family with a 1.15 trillion won family fortune, 250 billion won up from a year ago. Despite the bearish stock market, the share prices of Lotte Group and Shinsegae Department Store rose thanks to their focus on the domestic demand of business, relatively immune to the economic slowdown.

Notably, a large number of heads of education industries joined the richest families. The family of Daekyo Group Chairman Kang Young-joong, famous for Noonnoppi Education, was ranked the 7th, Gyowon Group Chairman Chang Pyong-soon the 15th (272.5 billion won), and JEI Corporation Chairman Park Sung-hoon the 45th (127.8 billion won).

In the meantime, the share prices of heads of venture companies drastically dropped due to the sluggish Kosdaq market. Ahn Chul-soo, head of Ahn-Lab, was left out of those who have over 100 billion won.

Na-Yeon Lee larosa@donga.com