À̹ÌÁö È®´ë The longstanding top three ranking in South Korean conglomerate names may change with SK Group poised to steal the No. 2 spot from Hyundai Motor Group on the back of last year¡¯s lucrative semiconductor business.
SK Group¡¯s assets stood at 213.21 trillion won ($189.87 billion) as of the end of September last year, up 23.67 trillion won from late 2017, according to the local business tracking site CEO Score on Wednesday. The comparative assets of Hyundai Motor Group fell 2.06 trillion won to 220.6 trillion won during the period.
Given the contradicting performance of flagship companies SK Hynix and Hyundai Motor in the final quarter, SK would have added more to its assets portfolio, the site said. SK Hynix raked in operating profit of 4.4 trillion won in the fourth quarter, while Hyundai Motor¡¯s profit stopped at 501.1 billion won.
À̹ÌÁö È®´ë With its ammunitions fueled by memory chip sales, SK Group expanded, acquiring the country¡¯s second largest security services provider ADT Caps Co. and the car rental company AJ Rent-A-Car Co. It also is planning to add new chip lines in a government-backed project worth 120 trillion won to create the world¡¯s largest semiconductor cluster in Korea by 2028.
Samsung Group kept its lead with assets of 418.22 trillion won, the highest over 400 trillion won since inception and larger than the government¡¯s 2017 budget of 400.7 trillion won, also thanks to best-ever performance by chipmaker Samsung Electronics.
The rank onwards remains unchanged: LG (130.3 trillion won), Lotte (117.1 trillion won), Posco (82.76 trillion won), Hanwha (65.45 trillion won), and GS (65.34 trillion won).
Combined assets of Korea¡¯s 60 big corporate names stood at 2,048.36 trillion won as of late September 2018, up 4.2 percent or 81.65 trillion won from the end of 2017.
By Chun Gyung-woon and Lee Ha-yeon
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