As the share prices of Korea's blue-chip semiconductor stocks Samsung Electronics and SK hynix surged and their combined market capitalization topped 1,000 trillion won for the first time, the number of non-owner executives whose stock valuation exceeds 1 billion won increased significantly.
On Oct. 26, corporations analysis specialist Korea CXO Institute analyzed the stock valuations of executives at Samsung Electronics and SK hynix based on the Oct. 24 closing prices and found that the total number of non-owner executives at the two companies with stock assets of 1 billion won or more was 31. This is more than triple the figure on May 2 (nine).
The person with the largest stock assets was Samsung Electronics President Roh Tae-Moon, who held a total of 50,679 Samsung Electronics shares. The valuation came to 5.00708 billion won.
They were followed by ▲ President Park Hak-kyu (4.32941 billion won) ▲ Executive Vice President Yu Byung-gil (3.02663 billion won), who ranked second and third, respectively.
At SK hynix, President Kwak Noh-jung (2.94270 billion won) and Executive Vice President Kim Young-sik (2.65047 billion won) ranked among the top non-owner executives.
Excluding these, executives with stock valuations in the 2 billion won range numbered five: SK hynix President Ahn Hyun (2.24757 billion won), Samsung Electronics Executive Vice President Oh Moon-uk (2.223 billion won), SK hynix Executive Vice President Kim Sung-han (2.18943 billion won), Samsung Electronics President Kim Yong-gwan (2.04012 billion won), and Samsung Electronics Executive Vice President Kim Hong-kyung (2.02658 billion won).
Meanwhile, the owner family's stock assets remain overwhelming in scale. Hong Ra-hee, honorary director of the Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, holds about 97.98 million shares of Samsung Electronics, with a total valuation of 9.6802 trillion won. ▲ Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong (9.6245 trillion won), ▲ Hotel Shilla President Lee Boo-jin (4.7172 trillion won) ▲ Samsung C&T President Lee Seo-hyun (4.6722 trillion won) followed.
The equity value of SK Square, the largest shareholder of SK hynix, also surged. The value of SK Square's equity, which was 20.8046 trillion won at the start of the year (Jan. 2), increased by more than 50 trillion won in 10 months to 74.5110 trillion won.
Oilseon, head of the Korea CXO Institute, said, "As the share prices of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix have jumped recently, the stock value of internal executives has also risen," and noted, "By stock, the number of executives whose stock assets exceed 1 billion won increased noticeably from eight to 17 at Samsung Electronics as of early May, and from one, President Kwak Noh-jung, to 14 at SK hynix."