30 Business Groups
It has been discovered that the 30 major groups in Korea took approximately 470 billion won in dividends from subsidiaries during the past five years through intra-company transactions. Chaebul.com announced on July 7 that the 30 groups, all of which are subject to taxation on inter-subsidiary transactions, paid dividends worth 469.6 billion won to their heads and their families between 2008 and 2012.
The largest amount was paid by the Hyundai Motor Group. Hyundai Glovis paid 78.1 billion won in dividends to Hyundai Motor Company vice chairman Chung Eui-sun and chairman Chung Mong-koo during the period. They also took 66.6 billion won from Hyundai AMCO. Advertising subsidiary Innocean paid 37.2 billion won to the chairman, vice chairman and Innocean advisor Chung Sung-eui, who is the eldest daughter of the chairman.
In addition, Hyundai Mobis, Hyundai Autoever and Samwoo paid 48.5 billion, 9.9 billion and 5.3 billion won, respectively. In total, such provisions amounted to 245.6 billion won.
Hyundai Motor Group was followed by the SK and GS Groups. SK C&C, of which 40% of shares are owned by SK Group chairman Choi Tae-won and his younger brother and SK Happiness Foundation director Choi Ki-won, provided them with 81.5 billion won. The intersubsidiary transaction ratio was no less than 64.8% in SK C&C.
Electrical work company GS Neotek paid 49 billion won to GS Neotek chairman Huh Jung-soo, who is the sole owner of the company, during the same period. He took approximately 10 billion won each year from the company and whose internal transaction ratio stands at 64.9%.
Real estate leasing and development company Seungsan, whose shares are owned by GS Energy vice chairman Huh Yong-soo and his family members, provided dividends of 18 billion won to them. They also took 7.8 billion won and 4.6 billion won from GS ITM and Oksan Distribution, respectively. Such dividends totaled 79.4 billion for them.
In the meantime, Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-hee and his family members took an especially large amount of dividends from system integration service provider Samsung SDS. For example, Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Jae-yong, Hotel Shilla president Lee Bu-jin and Cheil Industries vice president Lee Suh-hyun received 14.1 billion won from Samsung SDS. The sum amounted to 22.4 billion won during the five years, including 5.8 billion won from Samsung Everland and 2.5 billion won from Samsung SNS.
The STX Group paid large dividends to the owner’s family despite severe financial difficulties. IT service subsidiary ForceTEC paid 9.6 billion won to STX Group chairman Kang Duk-soo, who owns 69.4% of the affiliate’s shares, while five billion won was paid by STX Construction to the chairman and his two daughters.