April 19, 2024

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The father and son of Samsung Group owning family remained the top two recipients of dividends this year, with the total payouts by conglomerates expected to hit a record, an analysis by a corporate tracker showed on Feb. 28.

Lee Kun-hee, the hospitalized second-generation chief of Samsung Group who is the chairman of Samsung Electronics, received 474.7 billion won (US$424.21 million) in dividends, an increase of 55 percent from last year. 

His son, Jae-yong, and the heir apparent of the business group, was paid the next largest amount of 116 billion won, up 20.6 percent from the year before.

The results came from CEO Score, which analyzed dividend records of 823 firms that released relevant information.

The big jumps are based on the high-flying earnings performance by the group’s tech unit. Samsung Electronics paid out nearly 9.62 trillion won in dividends when including midterm payments from last year, an increase of 65.1 percent from the previous season.

Hong Ra-hee, the wife of Lee Kun-hee, ranked fifth for the 76.7 billion-won dividends she received for her 0.91 percent share in Samsung Electronics. The couple‘s daughters, Boo-jin and Seo-hyun, shared the 10th spot.

Chung Mong-koo, chairman of Hyundai Motor Group, came in third with 92.8 billion won, an amount matching last year. His younger brother Mong-joon, who currently heads a Hyundai-affiliated welfare foundation, placed fourth as a new entrant to the list after receiving 77.7 billion won for his 25.8 percent stake in the holding company Hyundai Heavy Industries.

Chey Tae-won, the head of SK Group, was sixth with 68.4 billion won. His holdings in SK fell to 18.44 percent after transferring some 1 trillion won worth of his stakes to family and relatives but still received a hefty sum as the conglomerate increased its dividend payments.

Chung Eui-sun, who stands to inherit Hyundai Motor Group, came next with 56.2 trillion won, followed by LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo with 51.7 billion won. Koo inherited the group in June last year and raised his share from 6.24 percent to 15 percent. LG increased its dividends this year.

Cho Jung-ho, head of Meritz Financial, came in ninth with 46.7 billion won.

By Ram Garikipati and newswires (ram@heraldcorp.com)