Lack of Recognition
Major Korean firms have dropped considerably in value in the past year. On the other hand, the number of Chinese firms which made the top 500 list in terms of market capitalization have doubled in just a year, in stark contrast with Korea.
According to data on the global annual market value rankings compiled by Bloomberg on April 16, only three Korean companies made the top 500 as of the day before. The figure tumbled by half to three from six a year earlier.
Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motor, and SK Hynix stayed on the list. However, Samsung Electronics dropped six spots to 28th, even though its total market value edged up to US$196.3 billion (215.3 trillion won) from US$193.1 billion (211.8 trillion won) the previous year.
Even though Hyundai Motor fell rapidly to 360th position from 201st a year ago, SK Hynix moved up 17 spots from 462nd to 445th.
Last year, Hyundai Mobis ranked 393rd in the list, while POSCO and Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) ranked 435th and 482nd, respectively. However, they slipped out of the rankings this year.
This was largely due to the fact that Korea’s export-oriented companies were struggling to minimize the impacts from the weak Japanese yen, leading to the poor performance.