The Only Korean Chaebol... Samsung Family's '24 Trillion' Wealth Ranks 12th in Asia

The Samsung family, including Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, was found to have the 12th largest assets in Asia.

According to the US Bloomberg News on the 29th, the combined wealth of the top 20 wealthy families in Asia was estimated at $534 billion (approximately 714.49 trillion KRW) as of the 24th. Among Korean conglomerates, only the Samsung family was included in the top 20 wealthy families in Asia. The Samsung family’s assets amounted to $18.2 billion (approximately 24.35 trillion KRW), ranking 12th in Asia. This was a drop of two places compared to last year ($18.5 billion). Previously, the Samsung family ranked 5th in Asia in 2019 ($28.5 billion) and 2020 ($26.6 billion), but fell to 15th ($16.3 billion) in 2022.

Lee Jae-yong, Chairman of Samsung Electronics [Photo by Yonhap News]

The richest family in Asia was the Ambani family, who control Reliance Industries, India’s largest oil and telecommunications conglomerate. The Ambani family also held the top spot last year. Their assets totaled $102.7 billion. Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, resides in a 27-story luxury mansion known as the most expensive in the world.

Second place went to the Hartono family ($44.8 billion), owners of the Indonesian tobacco company Djarum and BCA Bank. Third place was the Mistry family ($36.2 billion), operators of the Indian construction company Shapoorji Pallonji Group, who rose one rank from last year.

The Guo (郭) family ($32.3 billion), leading Hong Kong’s largest real estate developer Sun Hung Kai, and the Chearavanont family ($31.2 billion), heading Thailand’s CP Group, ranked fourth and fifth respectively.

Notably, this survey marked the first time since 2020 that no mainland Chinese wealthy families were included in the top 20. Bloomberg stated, "This indicates how the concentration of wealth and power in Asia is changing as China’s growth slows," adding, "India is moving forward, with its stock market surpassing Hong Kong to become the world’s fourth largest stock market."

The survey excluded first-generation companies and single-heir businesses such as Alibaba Group led by founder Jack Ma.