Hyundai and Kia Motors Surpass General Motors In Market Value

Hyundai and Kia motors have surpassed the world’s number one automaker, General Motors (GM) in market value of listed stock (whole issued shares times stock prices).

On March 22, the stock price of Hyundai Motors closed at 54,900 won per share, so the aggregate value of the listed stock of the company totaled 12 trillion and 2.7 billion won. The price of Kia Motor closed at 14,750 won a share, resulting in a total value of 5.1216 trillion won for the company. The total value of stock of the two companies, which are in effect considered as one, was 17.1243 trillion won.

The stock price of GM on March 21 (local time) on the New York Stock Exchange finished trading at 29.69 dollars, up 1.07 dollars, or a 3.74 percent increase, from the previous day.

The market value of the listed stock of GM on the same day was 16.707 billion dollars, or 16.864 trillion won, when calculated using that day’s adjusted won-dollar exchange rate of 1009.4 won, which is 260.3 billion won less than that of Hyundai and Kia motors.

The stock prices of Hyundai and Kia motors have shown very strong increases owing to their success in making a bigger influence in the global market. The total value of the companies has greatly jumped from 15 trillion won at the end of 2003, to 15.91 trillion won in late 2004, and to 17 trillion won in recent days.

Meanwhile, the share price of GM once almost reached 100 dollars a share in 2000, but has fallen since then. The price reached the 28.62 dollar mark last week, and the aggregate value of the company’s listed stock declined to 16.106 billion dollars. Recently, the Financial Times reported, “GM has lost face as its total value of listed stock is less than the 17.68 billion dollars of Harley Davidson, a motorcycle company whose sales account for less than one twentieth of those of GM.”

Kwang-Hyun Kim kkh@donga.com