Late Kim Jeong-ju's Second Daughter Becomes World's Youngest Billionaire
Forbes Estimates Sisters' Net Worth at 1.4 Trillion Won Each
The second daughter of the late Kim Jung-ju, founder of Nexon and director of NXC, has become the world's youngest billionaire through inheritance of shares. Photo is a file photo. [Image source=Yonhap News]
[Asia Economy Reporter Bora Lee] The American business magazine Forbes reported on the 21st (local time) that the world's youngest billionaire has emerged from Korea.
The second daughter of the late Kim Jung-ju, founder of Nexon and director of NXC, who passed away last February, became the world's youngest billionaire through inheritance of shares.
Forbes cited public disclosure data, stating that Kim, born in 2004, the founder's second daughter, and her elder sister, two years older, each inherited 30.78% of NXC shares valued at $2.5 billion (approximately 3.2 trillion KRW).
Additionally, Kim's spouse, auditor Yoo Jeong-hyun, who held 29.43% of NXC shares before the inheritance, received 132,890 shares through inheritance, increasing their shareholding to 34.00%. Forbes reported that Auditor Yoo became the largest shareholder of NXC and ascended to the head of Nexon.
The second daughter of the late Kim Jung-ju, founder of Nexon and director of NXC, inherited shares and became the world's youngest billionaire at the age of 18. Photo by Yonhap News
Forbes estimated, "Korea imposes one of the world's highest inheritance taxes, so the sisters' inheritance tax for the shares they received is expected to be over $1.5 billion (about 2.1 trillion KRW) each," and estimated that "after paying inheritance tax, the net assets held by the two sisters are about $1 billion (1.4 trillion KRW) each."
It added, "Kim Jung-ju was known to avoid media exposure during his lifetime, and little was known about his family," and "after stepping down from frontline management around 2006, he focused on charitable activities and other investment work."
It further noted, "He donated large sums to children's hospitals during his lifetime and was named one of Forbes Asia's 15 'Heroes of Philanthropy' last year."
Until now, the youngest billionaire was Kevin David Lehmann from Germany, who turned 20 this month. He inherited shares of the German pharmacy and cosmetics chain DM from his father, G?nther Lehmann, at age 14.
Meanwhile, the late Kim Jung-ju, founder of Nexon and director of NXC, passed away at the age of 54 last February. Before his death, he was known as Korea's third richest person after Seo Jung-jin, honorary chairman of Celltrion, and Lee Jae-yong, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics.
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