Big Biz made lion’s share of the profits

Net profits of Korea’s top 10 business groups took up nearly 80 percent of those of all 1,345 listed Korean companies, data showed yesterday, in the latest sign of economic domination by family-owned conglomerates.
The combined net profit of 80 listed companies affiliated with chaebol reached 36.9 trillion won ($34 billion) in the first nine months of last year, accounting for 78.1 percent of total net profits, according to FnGuide, an online financial information provider, and Chaebul.com, a corporate information provider. The figure represents a slight increase from the full year of 2011, when the combined net profit of conglomerates’ subsidiaries reached 35.8 trillion won.

The subsidiaries generated 429.5 trillion won in sales in the January-September period last year, accounting for 54.2 percent of total sales of all listed companies, data showed.

By group, Samsung Group, Korea’s largest conglomerate, saw combined sales of its subsidiaries reach 152.5 trillion won during the period, accounting for 16.8 percent of total sales.
Samsung Electronics, the world’s top maker of smartphones and flagship unit of Samsung Group, alone generated 103.7 trillion won in sales in the first nine months of last year, or 11.4 percent of total sales posted by all listed companies. Yonhap