"2.2% More Than Lee Jae-yong"... Jo Jeong-ho Rises to No.1 Domestic Stock Billionaire Amid Samsung Stock Decline

Cho Jung-ho, chairman of Meritz Financial Group, has overtaken Lee Jae-yong, chairman of Samsung Electronics, to become the richest stockholder in South Korea. Cho Jung-ho, chairman of Meritz Financial Group, has overtaken Lee Jae-yong, chairman of Samsung Electronics, to become the richest stockholder in South Korea.

Jo Jung-ho, Chairman of Meritz Financial Group

According to the Korea CXO Research Institute, a corporate analysis specialist, as of the 6th, the estimated value of Chairman Cho's stock holdings was 12.4334 trillion won. This amount is 2.2% higher than the previous top stockholder Chairman Lee's stock assets, which were valued at 12.1666 trillion won.

This is analyzed to be due to the stagnation of key stocks held by Chairman Lee, such as Samsung Electronics, Samsung Life Insurance, and Samsung C&T, while Meritz Financial Group made significant progress. Chairman Cho is understood to hold 97,747,034 shares of Meritz Financial Group.

The value of the stocks held by Chairman Cho was 5.7475 trillion won in early January last year, with a gap of about 38.7% compared to the then top stockholder Chairman Lee (14.8673 trillion won).

However, following an upward trend, he joined the '10 trillion club' in October of the same year, and last month, his stock assets increased to the 12 trillion won range, rapidly narrowing the gap with Chairman Lee.

Accordingly, as of the 20th of last month, the difference in stock valuation between Chairman Lee and Chairman Cho narrowed to 100 to 91.2, and on this day, Cho succeeded in overtaking with a ratio of 100 to 102.2.

Meritz Financial Group's market capitalization ranking, which was 34th in early January last year, also rose to 15th on this day, entering the top 10 range. During this period, the market capitalization increased from 11.9582 trillion won to 24.2595 trillion won.

On the other hand, Chairman Lee's stock assets, which were 13.1848 trillion won as of the 20th of last month, dropped to 12.9021 trillion won on the 21st of last month, falling into the 12 trillion won range, and continued to decline daily, eventually allowing the overtaking.

Among Chairman Lee's holdings, Samsung Electronics' common stock price fell about 7% from 58,400 won per share on the 20th of last month to 54,300 won on this day, and Samsung Life Insurance also dropped 10.6% from 95,500 won to 85,400 won. Samsung C&T also fell 7.8% during the same period.

Oh Il-seon, director of the Korea CXO Research Institute, said, "The temporary relinquishment of the top stockholder position presents Chairman Lee Jae-yong with the task of once again enhancing shareholder value and raising Samsung's status, while it has become important for Chairman Cho Jung-ho to continuously find momentum to further increase Meritz Financial's stock price."