Kolon Group Oner family fourth-generation member Lee Kyu-ho, vice chairman of Kolon, is drawing attention for buying shares of affiliates Kolon Industries and Kolon GLOBAL instead of shares of Kolon, which sits at the top of the governance structure. The business community interprets this as the start of building justification ahead of the eventual launch of the Lee Kyu-ho regime.
According to the business community on the 3rd, succession at Kolon Group will be completed when the Kolon equity (49.74%) held by Honorary Chairman Lee Woong-yeol in the holding company Kolon passes to his son, the vice chairman.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system, Vice Chairman Lee Kyu-ho on the 28th bought 2,441 shares (0.01%) of Kolon Industries on the market at 40,975 won per share. He also purchased 10,518 shares (0.05%) of Kolon GLOBAL at 9,508 won per share. Having previously not owned a single share in Kolon Group affiliates, he now holds affiliate shares for the first time after spending a total of 200 million won.
Kolon Industries and Kolon GLOBAL, the companies in which the vice chairman bought shares, are core affiliates of the group. Kolon Industries is an operating company established through a spin-off when Kolon converted into a holding company in 2009. It engages in chemicals, fashion, and materials—the backbone of the group—and accounts for about 40% of the group's total sales.
Kolon GLOBAL is in charge of developing future growth engines such as construction and renewable energy. Vice Chairman Lee Kyu-ho also split off Kolon GLOBAL's imported car sales business unit to create Kolon Mobility Group, a company specializing in automobile distribution.
The two companies are also where the vice chairman built key parts of a career. He joined Kolon Industries in 2012 as a deputy general manager and was promoted to Director General in 2014. He then advanced as follows: 2015 Kolon Industries senior manager → 2017 Kolon executive director → 2019 Kolon Industries managing director → 2021 Kolon GLOBAL executive vice president → 2022 Kolon Mobility Group CEO → 2023 Kolon vice chairman.
The vice chairman is currently registered as an inside director at the holding company Kolon and core affiliates Kolon GLOBAL and Kolon Industries, exerting influence. It is the first time a member of the Kolon Oner family has been listed as an inside director of Kolon since Honorary Chairman Lee Woong-yeol stepped down from front-line management in 2019.
Kolon Group has effectively established a fourth-generation management structure centered on the vice chairman. The vice chairman's younger sisters, So-yoon and So-min, are currently studying abroad and are said to be on paths unrelated to company management. They do not hold equity.
The vice chairman plans to delist Kolon Mobility Group next year and fold it in as a subsidiary of Kolon. The intention is to convert a highly profitable, high-quality affiliate into an unlisted company so the holding company can manage it directly. To improve operating efficiency, the merger by absorption between Kolon Industries and its subsidiary Kolon ENP is also scheduled to be completed in April next year.
Some say the vice chairman's purchase of affiliate shares this time created justification ahead of an official declaration of the Lee Kyu-ho regime. In many conglomerate families, heirs apparent buy shares of key affiliates to signal symbolism before taking the chairman post, and this is seen as part of that.
In a similar case, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun, while serving as vice chairman, bought 581,333 Hyundai Motor shares in March 2020 at 69,792 won per share, raising his equity stake by 0.21 percentage points from 1.81% to 2.02%. He then officially took office as chairman in Oct. of the same year.
If Chung had sought to strengthen control over Hyundai Motor Group at the time, he should have bought equity in Hyundai Mobis, which sits at the apex of the governance structure in the circular shareholding scheme (Hyundai Mobis → Hyundai Motor → Kia → Hyundai Mobis). However, by buying Hyundai Motor equity, he effectively signaled symbolism as the next leader.
Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong (then vice chairman) stepped in as a relief pitcher in 2015 when Samsung Engineering (now Samsung E&A), which had fallen into capital impairment, pursued a 1.2 trillion won paid-in capital increase. Lee said that if there were unsubscribed shares, he would take up to 300 billion won.
At the time, it carried the meaning that the group chief would join in responding to the affiliate's management crisis. Lee's decision was conveyed to the market as a commitment to save the affiliate. As a result, the capital increase subscription was a success, and Lee no longer needed to participate.
For Lee as well, a common-sense move to enhance control over Samsung Group would have been to secure equity in Samsung C&T, which effectively serves as a holding company. Samsung Group exerts influence through a structure of the Oner family → Samsung C&T → Samsung Electronics and Samsung Life Insurance.
Lee Sang-heon, an analyst at iM Securities, said, "Given this equity purchase, Vice Chairman Lee Kyu-ho is highly likely to come to the fore as group chairman in two to three years. That is usually how succession goes. The Kolon equity held by Honorary Chairman Lee Woong-yeol is bound to go to the vice chairman over time, so there is no need to raise funds immediately to buy equity."