April 25, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] They say a family business rarely succeeds past three generations.

But in Korea’s pharmaceutical sector, the grandchildren of the founders are proving this wrong, growing their company’s fortunes and their own. 

This week, the Super Rich takes a look at the five richest third-generation pharma tycoons and the path they took to the top of the family business.

The ranking is based only on the value of shares owned in listed and non-listed companies. 

Lee Kyung-ha, JW Group -- 206 billion won

Lee Kyung-ha, the first grandson of JW Group’s late founder Lee Gi-suk, rose to the helm of the group last year, succeeding his father Lee Jong-ho who has been leading the business as chairman for the past five decades.  
The junior Lee is the largest shareholder of the group’s holding firm JW Holdings, with a 27.2 percent stake. He also owns 0.59 percent of JW Pharmaceuticals, the group’s flagship unit.

The value of his shareholdings, as of June 17 2016, is around 206 billion won ($18.1 million), placing him in the top spot of our list.

The 53-year-old joined JW in 1986, after studying pharmacy in Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul and earning a MBA degree at Drake University in Iowa, US. Since then, Lee worked on local sales, marketing as well as R&D to finally become the CEO of JW Pharmaceutical in 2001. He also ran JW Holdings as CEO from 2006 until 2009 when he was promoted to the post of the group vice chairman. 

Kang Jung-seok, Dong-A Socio Group -- 138.1 billion won

Kang Jung-seok is the heir of Dong-A Socio Group, which runs Dong-A Pharmaceutical most known for its energy drink, Bakkhus.

Nominally, the 52-year-old is the No. 2 man in the group, as his father, Kang Shin-ho, still holds the group chairmanship. The junior Kang holds the title of a vice chairman.

As for the equity ownership, however, the succession is already complete. In 2013, the chairman handed over his entire stake in key Dong-A companies to the fourth son -- 11.8 percent of Dong-A Socio Holdings, the group’s holding firm, and 0.3 percent of Dong-A ST.

The junior Kang is also the largest stockholder of ST Pharm with a 43.5 percent stake. A unit of Dong-A Socio that manufactures pharmaceutical ingredients, made a stock market debut in May this year on the tech-loaded Kodsaq exchange with revenue of 138.1 billion won last year.

The combined value of his shareholdings in the publicly-traded Dong-A companies is around 111.1 billion won.

The younger Kang joined Dong-A Pharmaceutical in 1989, after earning a master’s degree in pharmacy from Sungkyunkwan University.

Huh Eun-chul, Green Cross Corp. -- 50.9 billion won

Taking the third place in the list is Huh Eun-chul, CEO of Green Cross Corp., with shares worth 50.9 billion won ($44.7 million).

Huh, 44, is a grandson of the late Huh Chae-kyung who founded Hanil Cement Co. The Huh family’s business interests expanded to drugs and vaccines in 1967 when Huh Young-sup, the founder’s son and the current Green Cross CEO’s father, acquired a small pharma firm in 1967 and later renamed it to Green Cross.

Earlier this year, Green Cross officially ended the era of a joint management between a family member and an external professional manager hired by the family, giving the junior Huh the entire control over the firm’s management.

Huh owns 0.2 percent of Green Cross and 2.49 percent in its parent company, Green Cross Holdings. His total shareholdings are estimated to be worth 50.9 billion won.

The CEO holds a Ph.D. in food science from Cornell University and has worked as a researcher at Green Cross before jumping onto the management side as head of strategic planning in 2013. He was promoted to CEO last year.

Under his stewardship, Green Cross Corp. surpassed 1 trillion won in sales for the first time in 2015, joining Korea’s two pharma giants Yuhan Corp. and Hanmi Pharmaceutical.

His uncle, Huh Il-sup, is the chairman of the parent firm Green Cross Holdings. 

Yoon Woong-sub, Ildong Pharmaceutical -- 36.6 billion won

Yoon Woong-sub is a grandson of Ildong Pharmaceutical founder, Yoon Yong-goo. He rose to the helm of Ildong in 2014.

Yoon controls Ildong through his private company CMJC. Through his 90 percent stake in CMJC, the Ildong Pharmaceutical CEO controls 8.3 percent of the firm, as the largest single shareholder. Yoon directly owns 1.6 percent of the shares. Combined with shares held by other members of the Yoon family, including his father, the stake backing his reign rises to about 31 percent.

His stock wealth is estimated to exceed 36.6 billion won.

Instead of medicine or pharmacy, he studied applied statistics at Yonsei University. After his master’s degree at Georgia State University he worked as an accountant at KMPG International and others. He joined the family business in 2005.

Yoon Do-joon, Dongwha Pharmaceutical -- 14.5 billion won

Yoon Do-joon is a former medical doctor running Dongwha Pharmaceutical, a pharma firm with the longest history in Korea of 119 years.

The oldest son of the firm’s former chief Yoon Kwang-yull, the 64-year-old current chairman owns a 5.1 percent stake in Dongwha Pharmaceutical, worth 14.5 billion won. He also owns an 8.9 percent stake in Dongwha G&P, which manufactures medicine containers, worth 5.7 billion won ($5 million).

Yoon worked as a psychiatrist for nearly two decades before joining the family business in 2005 as vice president of a subsidiary company. He became the company’s chairman in 2008. 


By The Super Rich Team (jiwon.song@heraldcorp.com)