Global Presence
Korea’s top 10 conglomerates, or chaebol, have established 2,055 overseas subsidiaries in 91 countries, and 470 of them are located in China, accounting for 23 percent.
The number of overseas affiliates in the U.S. was the second largest following China, at 14.7 percent.
All of the top ten conglomerates have presences in eight countries: the U.S., China, Japan, India, Brazil, Singapore, Vietnam, and Germany. These nations are the core strategic markets for the local businesses.
This data comes from an analysis by the Korea CXO Institute on July 8 of the current status of the top ten chaebol’s overseas subsidiaries, which was made based the data on Large Business Status publicized by the Fair Trade Commission.
The Samsung Group has the largest number of overseas subsidiaries, with 488 in 67 countries, followed by the LG Group with 292 in 55 countries.
Both the Lotte and SK Groups, in contrast, have the largest number of subsidiaries in China with 84 each, accounting for 33.6 percent and 29.6 percent of their respective overseas subsidiaries.
Following them, the LG Group and Samsung Group established 81 and 80 subsidiaries there, accounting for 27.7 percent and 16.4 percent of their respective overseas presences.
The number of Samsung subsidiaries in the U.S. stands at 54 and that of LG at 33, hinting that the two business groups are focusing on the Chinese market more than the American.
Hyundai Motor Group holds the largest number of subsidiaries in the U.S. at 55, accounting for 20.5 percent of its total overseas presence.