Samsung chairman tops South Korea's rich list

Apr 26, 2012 |

SEOUL

Tags:

Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Kun-Hee, currently embroiled in an inheritance dispute with his siblings, remains South Korea's richest man, according to a Forbes magazine ranking published on Thursday.

The 70-year-old, who transformed the company into the world's top chipmaker and second-largest mobile phone maker, has an estimated net worth of $10.8 billion, up $1.5 billion from 2011, said the US publication.

"Despite the dip in the KOSPI (Seoul's benchmark stock index), a 52 per cent rise in shares of Samsung Electronics propelled Lee Kun-Hee's net wealth," Forbes said in a statement.

Lee is engaged in a bitter legal dispute with his elder brother and sister over the vast family inheritance left by their father who founded the group.

Lee Maeng-Hee, 80, accuses the Samsung boss of taking over some shares in Samsung group subsidiaries which their father and group founder Lee Byung-Chull had held under the names of other people.

He demanded his brother return some shares in Samsung units along with cash, worth 710 billion won ($623 million) in total. Their sister Lee Sook-Hee followed with a separate suit.

Last week Kun-Hee vowed he would not give 'a single dime' to his brother and sister and would fight the lawsuits to the end. The two sides swapped accusations of greed.

Chung Mong-Koo, chairman of the country's largest automaker Hyundai Motor, was ranked second in the Forbes list with a net worth of $6.6 billion, followed by Kim Jung-Joo, a 44-year-old founder of online game company Nexon.

Kim's net worth was $4.3 billion, Forbes said, calling his success as a self-made entrepreneur with no family-related business connections "remarkable."

Jay Y. Lee, Samsung Electronics' chief operating officer and the chairman's first son, was ranked fourth with a net worth of $3.8 billion.

Lee Myung-Hee, Kun-Hee's younger sister and the chief of major retailer the Shinsegae Group, was 11th with an estimated net worth of $1.68 billion. This made her the country's wealthiest woman.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/146344" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-3b910d5df95c294db330185c4ac27532" value="form-3b910d5df95c294db330185c4ac27532" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="80547718" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>