Gu Ja-eun, the chairman of LS Group, has recently attracted attention as his two daughters have been increasing their equity in INVENI, the group's investment-type holding company. INVENI is the new name for Yesco Holdings, which owns the city gas subsidiary, Yesco. Unlike other third-generation members of the LS family, the chairman's two daughters are not participating in management, but they have been steadily buying shares of INVENI, which is their direct lineage, this year.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system on the 14th, the chairman's eldest daughter, Gu Won-gyeong, and his second daughter, Gu Min-gi, each purchased 400 shares of INVENI through open market transactions on the 2nd. Their equity stakes increased to 2.96% (177,490 shares) each, making them the fifth largest among individual shareholders.
The largest shareholder of INVENI is Chairman Gu, who holds an equity stake of 7.84%. Outside of Chairman Gu, 25 close relatives, categorized as special related parties, hold a combined equity of 40.56%. In March 2023, Chairman Gu transferred 328,283 shares to his two daughters, reducing his equity from the 13% range to around 7%. While the two daughters previously had equity stakes of around 0.05% to 0.20%, their stakes skyrocketed to the 2% range after receiving the transfer.
The two stopped buying shares after July 2023 but resumed doing so this year. Gu Won-gyeong purchased a total of 4,630 shares in nine transactions from February 27 to April 2, while Gu Min-gi also bought a total of 4,630 shares across eight transactions. The total purchase amounts to 230 million won each.
Born in 1993, Gu Won-gyeong currently works as a regular employee at INVENI. She acquired the shares through earned income, while her sister, Gu Min-gi, born in 2005, obtained them through dividends.
INVENI is evaluated as a place where equity and management rights are distinctly separated within the loosely tied LS Group cousin management system. When LS separated from the LG Group in 2003, the late Honorary Chairman Gu Du-hoe, one of the first generation (Gu Tae-hoe, Gu Pyeong-hoe, Gu Du-hoe), was put in charge of Yesco. Currently, Gu Ja-eun, the eldest son of the late Honorary Chairman Gu Du-hoe, holds the largest shareholder equity, but management has been in charge of Gu Bon-hyeok, the grandson of the late Honorary Chairman Gu Tae-hoe and the son of the late Gu Ja-myeong, the chairman of LS Nicco Resources (now LS MnM), since 2020.
Since taking office, Vice Chairman Gu Bon-hyeok has transformed Yesco Holdings, which was a general holding company, into an investment-type holding company. In last year's year-end personnel changes, he was the only third-generation member to be promoted to vice chairman, with plans to grow INVENI's corporate value to 1 trillion won and its managed assets to 1 trillion won by 2030. It is known that the name change last month was led by Vice Chairman Gu to emphasize the identity of an investment holding company.
Vice Chairman Gu Bon-hyeok's equity in INVENI is only 0.70% (42,000 shares). His two daughters, Gu So-young and Gu Da-young, each hold 3.67% (220,000 shares), making them the third-largest individual shareholders. There are also projections that Gu Ja-eun's two daughters could surpass the equity stakes of Vice Chairman Gu's two daughters as they continue to purchase additional shares.
The rotational management among the second-generation cousins, where the eldest sons of the late Gu Tae-hoe, Gu Pyeong-hoe, and Gu Du-hoe take turns as group chairman for nine years, will come to a conclusion when Gu Ja-eun's term ends in 2030. Some speculate that as the LS Group consists of three holding companies, including INVENI, the holding company for the wire and power sector (LS Corporation), and the energy sector holding company E1, with equity complexities divided among family members, a separation of factions could occur as third-generation management begins.