The bereaved family members of Kim Jung-ju, the founder of gaming giant Nexon Co. that passed away in February last year, have paid their inheritance tax to the government with the shares in its holding company NXC Corp.

According to Financial Supervisory Service data on Wednesday, the Ministry of Economy and Finance became the second-largest shareholder of NXC in February with a stake of 29.3 percent.

The shares were given to the government by Kim’s family members in the name of inheritance tax. Heirs can choose to pay their inheritance taxes with securities or real estate properties to settle tax obligations.

Following the payment, the stake owned by Yoo Jung-hyun, widow of Kim and director at NXC, and Kim’s two daughters, has been reduced to 69.34 percent from 98.64 percent.

Yoo owns the same 34 percent while the two daughters each own 16.81 percent, down from 31.46 percent.

“The family is believed to have chosen to settle obligations with NXC shares since the company’s shares accounted for the largest part of Kim’s assets,” NXC said. “Yoo and related family members own nearly 70 percent of NXC, which will enable stable management.”

In September, Yoo and her two children inherited a total of 1,963,000 NXC shares, which accounted for 67.49 percent of the company at that time.

This made Yoo to become the largest shareholder of the company with a 34 percent stake, up from the previous 29.43 percent stake.



The two children each inherited 895,305 shares to own 31.46 percent stake, up from the previous 0.68 percent. The inheritance tax was reportedly worth more than 6 trillion won ($4.55 billion).

Yoo chose to transfer the children’s stake to settle the obligation as she has all the rights delegated to her from them.

Industry insiders expected that Nexon is likely to solidify its governance structure by positioning more professional personnel on the executive board at the affiliates.

Currently, Nexon is led by three officials: NXC Chief Executive Officer Lee Jae-kyo, Nexon Korea Corp. CEO Lee Jung-hun, and Nexon Japan Co. CEO Owen Mahoney.

No imminent changes are expected in the group’s management structure given their close relationships with Kim when he was alive and Nexon’s current strong performance in the industry.

“The group will have a stable management structure, with professional executives in charge of each gaming business, and Yoo making overall decisions, such as investment,” said an unnamed industry insider.

“The group’s overall business is likely to gain momentum with their engagement in intellectual property projects.”

Nexon posted record quarterly revenue and operating profit in the January-March period.

Nexon Japan posted 56.3 billion yen ($404.5 million) in operating profit in the first quarter, up 46 percent from the same period a year ago, on sales of 124.1 billion yen, up 36 percent.

It is the first time for the company to top 1 trillion won in quarterly sales.

By Ko Min-suh and Chang Iou-chung

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