In the last three months, the number of subsidiaries belonging to the large corporations has decreased by 12. While game and platform corporations actively integrated new affiliates, some groups excluded multiple subsidiaries for the purpose of management efficiency and governance restructuring.
According to the Fair Trade Commission on the 25th, the number of subsidiaries of 92 corporations with more than 5 trillion won in assets decreased from 3,301 on May 1 to 3,289 on August 1, a reduction of 12. During the same period, there were changes in subsidiaries for 52 groups.
During the period from May to July, 61 companies were newly included in 34 groups. There were 25 new establishments, 4 partitionings, and 14 equity acquisitions.
The largest integration came from KRAFTON, which added 10 companies to its group, including advertising technology developer Neptune. Naver also integrated 4 new companies, including the real estate platform OURHOME. Hanwha, TAE KWANG CORPORATION, and Sono International each added 3.
LG integrated the AI-based robotics developer Bear Robotics Korea into its group to strengthen its competitiveness in the robotics business, and Hanwha acquired equity in the food distribution and catering company OURHOME with synergy in the distribution and restaurant business in mind. Sono International added 3 new affiliates, including T'way Air.
During the same period, 73 companies left the groups in 36 cases. The reasons included mergers (13 cases), equity sales (11 cases), and liquidations (19 cases).
The group that eliminated the most subsidiaries was Daekwang, which excluded 20 holding companies, including Myungseong Industry. Yeongwon removed 5 holding companies related to executives and relatives, while SK stripped 4 companies from its group as part of efficiency measures related to semiconductor inspection.
POSCO merged its subsidiary N.E.H. into POSCO INTERNATIONAL to secure competitiveness in the LNG business, while Kakao and Naver excluded the webtoon production company Next Level Studio and the game developer Studio Polip from their groups, respectively, selling their equities.
This year, Bithumb, which was newly designated as a large business group, excluded the relative-controlled company Mathe from its group, and Sono International received recognition for relative independent management for 3 companies, including Dimedia.