Samsung boss receives biggest dividend payments

Last month’s executive pay disclosure painted a rather incomplete picture of who earns how much in Korea’s business world because it exempts non-board member executives from disclosure. However, dividend payment data helps present a clearer picture.

While the income of Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee remains unknown, dividend payment data provides a minimum estimate. Samsung Group claims Lee has not received pay since 2010. However, his dividend payments alone already make him Korea’s highest-earning executive. According to data released earlier this month by CEO Score, an online corporate research firm, Lee will receive 107.9 billion won ($13.9 million) in dividends this year, a figure that far surpasses the income of the chairman of SK Group, Chey Tae-won, who topped this year’s executive pay list. Lee was excluded from the list because the regulation requires only board members to reveal their incomes. He has long stepped down from the post.

Hyundai Motor Chairman Chung Mong-koo came in second with a total income of some 63.5 billion won, also showing a notable gap with Lee’s dividend payments alone. SK’s Chey followed, with 58.6 billion won. Chung Eui-sun, oldest son of Hyundai Motor’s Chung and vice chairman of the company, came in fourth with 25.3 billion won, followed by LG Group Chairman Koo Bon-moo with 23.6 billion won.

The list shows several family ties, demonstrating the monopolization of wealth by chaebol owners and family members. CJ Group Chairman Lee Jae-hyun, who ranked seventh with 16.5 billion won, is the son of Lee Maeng-hee, the former Cheil Fertilizer chairman and older brother of the Samsung Electronics chairman.

Hong Ra-hee, director of the Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art and wife of Samsung Electronics’ Lee, came in eighth also with dividend payments alone. Hong does not participate in running Samsung but holds a stake of some 1.45 trillion won in the company.

The ninth-largest earner with 15.4 billion won was Chung Mong-joon, a lawmaker from the ruling Saenuri Party and the younger brother of the Hyundai Motor chairman. As the controlling shareholder of Hyundai Heavy Industries, he is Korea’s wealthiest lawmaker.

Koo Bon-joon, LG Electronics’ vice chairman and younger brother of LG Group’s chairman, came in 10th with 14.9 billion won.

Meanwhile, other key figures exempted from the executive pay disclosure were Lee’s son and Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, as well as Shinsegae Group Vice Chairman Chung Yong-jin, the son of Shinsegae Group Chairwoman Lee Myung-hee, the younger sister of the Samsung Electronics chairman. With the exception of Hotel Shilla CEO Lee Boo-jin, the Lee family members with executive titles do not serve as board members.

And with SK’s Chey, Hanwha’s Kim and CJ Group Chairman Lee Jae-hyun having recently stepped down from their positions, next year’s executive pay disclosure list will have even fewer conglomerate owners. By Kim Bo-eun The korea times