Top ten Korean firms make 79% of the profits

Korea’s top 10 business groups accounted for 79.1 percent of all net profits generated by companies listed on the country’s main stock exchange in 2017, the local bourse operator said Sunday.

According to the Korea Exchange (KRX), of the 533 companies checked that settled their accounts in December, profits by the 62 affiliates belonging to the country’s 10 largest chaebol, or family-run conglomerates, totaled 90.6 trillion won ($84.7 billion), up 57.1 percent from the 57.6 trillion won tallied in 2016.

It said the increase marks an 8.6 percentage-point gain from 70.5 percent reported for the previous year.

Excluding the companies belong to the 10 largest chaebol, however, net profits for firms listed on the Kospi reached 23.9 trillion won, down 0.5 percent from a year earlier when earnings reached 24.1 trillion won.

By business group, profits posted by affiliates of Samsung, the country’s largest chaebol, stood at 43.9 trillion won last year for a surge of 86 percent on-year.

The conglomerate has Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest producer of semiconductors and smartphones, under its wing.

Corresponding numbers for the nine affiliates of SK Group hit 20.8 trillion won for an annual jump of 119.8 percent.

The latest findings also showed that LG, Lotte, Shinsegae and Hyundai Heavy Industries all posted gains in net profit in the one-year period, with Doosan Group making a turnaround from a deficit in 2016. Yonhap