Cho Jung-ho, chairman of Meriz Financial Group, has overtaken Lee Jae-yong, chairman of Samsung Electronics, to become the number one stockholder in South Korea. This marks the first time Cho has claimed the top spot since he lost it to Kim Beom-soo, chairman of Kakao, in 2021.
On the 6th, the corporate analysis expert Korea CXO Research Institute noted that as of that day, the value of Chairman Cho's stocks was 12.4334 trillion won, the highest assessment among domestic stockholders. This amount is 2.2% more than the stock value of Lee Jae-yong of Samsung Electronics, which is 12.1666 trillion won.
The recent surge in Meriz Financial Group's stock price, along with the poor performance of the stocks that Chairman Cho holds, has had a significant impact. Chairman Cho owns 97,747,034 shares of Meriz Financial Group. The value of Cho's holdings surpassed 6 trillion won at the end of January last year and exceeded 10 trillion won in October of the same year. It surged to over 12 trillion won on the 20th of last month.
In contrast, the stocks held by this chairman, such as Samsung Electronics, Samsung Life Insurance, and Samsung C&T, have shown weakness recently, leading to a decline in their valuation. In the case of Samsung Electronics, it recorded 58,700 won on the 19th of last month and then dropped to 54,300 won, a decline of 7.5% on that day.
Chairman Cho, who lost the title of 'number one stockholder' to Kim Beom-soo of Kakao in the second quarter of 2021, has regained the top position about four years later. At that time, Kim's stock valuation, including unlisted stocks, was recorded at 17.3 trillion won, surpassing Chairman Cho's stock valuation of 15.5511 trillion won.
Oh Il-sun, head of the Korea CXO Research Institute, said, "The fact that Lee Jae-yong of Samsung Electronics lost the number one stockholder position to Cho Jung-ho of Meriz Financial Group was decisively influenced by the rise of Meriz Financial, along with the poor stock values of Samsung Electronics, Samsung Life Insurance, and Samsung C&T."