A survey by the Korea CXO Research Institute found that there are 30 non-owner shareholders with stock assets exceeding 10 billion KRW in listed companies with a market capitalization of over 2 trillion KRW. As of May 2, among 151 stock items with this market cap, there were 201 executives and shareholders from non-owner backgrounds with stock assets of over 1 billion KRW. The largest group was those with stocks valued in the 1 billion KRW range (99 people), followed by 2 billion KRW (29 people), 3 billion KRW (17 people), 4 billion KRW (8 people), and 5 to 10 billion KRW (18 people).
The number of non-owner stock millionaires with assets exceeding 10 billion KRW has increased by three from 27 last September to 30. The top three non-owner stock millionaires in this survey are all from the Krafton Group. Kim Jung-hoon, CEO of Krafton affiliate RisingWings, holds 843,275 shares of Krafton, with a stock valuation exceeding 324.6 billion KRW as of May 2. This marks an increase of over 1 trillion KRW from the previous year due to the rise in Krafton’s stock price. Kim Hyeong-jun, CEO of Krafton’s new subsidiary Injoy Studio, ranks second with 273.3 billion KRW in stock assets, and Krafton’s head, Kim Chang-han, ranks third with 213.3 billion KRW.
In Krafton, 8 individuals, including these three, hold over 10 billion KRW in stock assets. The fourth and fifth positions in stock valuation are from Rainbow Robotics, a Samsung Electronics major shareholder, where CEO Lee Jeong-ho holds 193.7 billion KRW, and Technical Director Huh Jeong-woo holds 98 billion KRW. Other prominent non-owners include Scott Samuel Brown, a board member and CEO of Hive America (95.8 billion KRW), Son In-ho, board member of Silicontu (89.7 billion KRW), Min Kyung-lib, CSO of Shift-up (58.2 billion KRW), and Lee Jae-chun, Vice President of ABL Bio (51.7 billion KRW).
Among the 30 individuals with over 10 billion KRW in stock assets, the majority (13) were born in the 1970s, followed by the 1960s (10 individuals). Notably, in terms of senior executives from top domestic companies, Samsung Electronics’ Tai-moon Roh holds shares worth 1.5 billion KRW, SK Hynix’s Noh-jung Gwak holds around 1 billion KRW, and Hyundai Motor’s Jose Muñoz holds 1.8 billion KRW in stock. The head of CXO Research, Oil-seon, noted that unlike owners, non-owner executives and stock millionaires are more prevalent in industries like gaming and pharmaceuticals rather than top corporations, and expects an increase in young rising stock millionaires from the 1980s onwards in sectors like AI, gaming, robotics, bio, and entertainment as publicly listed companies emerge in these fields.