April 24, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Hyundai Motor and all its affiliates announced their withdrawal of membership from the Federation of Korean Industries on Feb. 21, further casting a cloud over the fate of the once largest business lobby in the country.

“Each of the 11 affiliates of the group has delivered their intention to quit as of Feb. 21,” said a group official.

Affiliates under the world‘s fifth-largest automotive group include Kia Motors, the country’s second-largest carmaker, and Hyundai Mobis, the leading auto parts maker here.

The group had widely been regarded to have left the FKI since all of the companies failed to pay their annual membership fees.

With the departure of Hyundai Motor Group, the four largest business groups here have now quit the organization that once boasted the 600 largest companies in South Korea as its members. The four largest business groups include Samsung, SK and LG, which, together with Hyundai Motor Group, are said to have accounted for more than half of the FKI‘s 50 billion won (US$43.6 million) income in membership fees in 2016.

The groups, along with dozens of other leading companies, began to leave the FKI in the wake of a corruption scandal that has also led to the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye.

(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)