Major Milestone
Samsung Group, led by Chairman Lee Jae-yong, was found to be the top Korean company in four categories in 2022: total sales, operating profit, net profit, and employment size.
Samsung Group officially passed a milestone of 400 trillion won in sales in 2022, according to the results of a 2022 Korean business group performance analysis released by the Korea CXO Institute, which specializes in analyzing corporate business performance.
Samsung’s operating profit and net profit stood at 37.8015 trillion won (US$28.9654) and 37.305 trillion won, respectively. These figures account for 24.1 percent of the total operating profit of 15.6 trillion won and 29.1 percent of the total net profit of 12.81 trillion won of the 82 Korean business groups with more than 5 trillion won in total assets surveyed. Samsung employed 274,002 people, or 15.5 percent of the 1,762,391 employees of the 82 groups.
Hyundai Motor, led by Chairman Chung Eui-sun, ranked second in both sales and net profit. In 2022, Hyundai Motor Group posted sales of 248.897 trillion won, over 24 trillion won more than the 224.465 trillion won of SK Group led by Chey Tae-won. In the same period, Hyundai Motor (11.6712 trillion won) narrowly beat SK (11.0385 trillion won) in the net profit category.
SK Group maintained the No. 2 spot in the operating income category in 2022 following 2021. As of last year, SK Group’s operating profit was 18.8282 trillion won, while Hyundai Motor Group’s was 12.58 trillion won, seeing SK Group overtake Hyundai Motor Group in second place behind Samsung in terms of operating profit.
The top spot for operating profit growth went to HD Hyundai Group led by Chairman Chung Mong-jun who is also chairman of the Asan Social Welfare Foundation. HD Hyundai Group’s operating profit soared by 1,030.6 percent in one year, from 295.1 billion won in 2021 to 3.3374 trillion won in 2022.
In the total asset rankings of 2023, only Hyundai Motor Group enjoyed increases in all three categories of sales growth, operating profit growth, and net profit growth, while LG Group posted decreases in all of the three. Samsung Group and SK Group increased sales year on year, but their operating income and net income slid.