Lotte Group Suffers Sharp Fall

The four largest Korean business groups -- Samsung, SK, Hyundai Motor, and LG -- saw a sharp increase in their market capitalization this year.

The gap in market capitalization between the four largest business groups -- Samsung, SK, Hyundai Motor, and LG -- and the rest of the top 10 Korean business groups has expanded.

High-flying Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix stocks drove up the proportion of Samsung Group and SK Group to 70 percent of the total market capitalization of the top 10 groups’ listed affiliates. Hyundai Motor Group and LG Group also saw their market capitalization climb, while the other six groups, including POSCO, Hyundai Heavy Industries, GS and Shinsegae, saw their market value shrink.

The combined market capitalization of the four largest business groups’ listed affiliates stood at 772,050.1 billion won based on their closing prices on Dec. 24, up 20.68 percent from the end of last year. The top four accounted for 88.97 percent of the total market value of the 10 largest business groups’ listed companies, up from 85.44 percent at the end of last year, Fn Guide said on Dec. 25. On the other hand, the total market capitalization of the remaining six business groups sank 12.16 percent to 95,742.8 billion won, which represented 11.03 percent of the top 10 groups’ total market value.

The market capitalization of Samsung Group’s 16 listed companies, including Samsung Electronics, hit 469,461.4 billion won, up 27.27 percent from last year. It accounted for 54.1 percent of the aggregate market value of the top 10 groups. SK Group has 19 listed companies, the largest number among the top 10 business groups. Their market capitalization added up to 130,446.8 billion won, up 19.34 percent from a year ago. They accounted for 15.03 percent of the total. The growth rate of SK Group’s market capitalization was higher than the 15.9 percent of the top 10 group’s entire listed companies.

Hyundai Motor Group posted 88,690.2 billion won in market cap, up 11.65 percent from the end of last year. This is because Hyundai Autoever with a market capitalization of 1.29 trillion won was listed on the stock market in March and the market values of Hyundai Mobis and Kia Motors surged by 32.69 percent and 32.64 percent, respectively.

LG Chem, which had the highest market capitalization among LG Group affiliates, recorded 22,060.1 trillion won, down 9.94 percent from the end of last year, but LG Household & Healthcare, LG Corp. and LG Electronics saw their market value increase by 14.35 percent, 7.15 percent and 15.41 percent, respectively. As a result, LG Group's total market capitalization rose 1.57 percent to 83,451.7 billion won.

In particular, those in domestic-focused industries such as telecommunications, distribution, construction and insurance were sluggish in terms of market caps. In the telecom sector, market caps shrank for SK Telecom (-10.02 percent) and LG U+ (-18.7 percent). In the retail sector, market caps of major listed companies such as Lotte Shopping (-35.07 percent) and E-Mart (-29.31 percent) slid 8.4 percent except for Shinsegae which enjoyed an 8.4 percent increase in its market cap. The market cap of all Hanwha Group's listed firms shrank 20.65 percent due to drops in the market caps of Hanwha Life (-44.31 percent) and Hanwha Corp. (-19.14 percent). A 33.82 percent decrease in Lotte Shopping and Lotte Holdings pulled down the market cap of Lotte Group by 22.88 percent, the biggest drop among the top ten business groups.

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