$9.8 Billion Places Kim Byung-joo 280th Globally, 53rd in Finance
Lee Jae-yong’s Assets Plunge from $11.5 Billion to $8.2 Billion
Kim Byung-joo, chairman of MBK Partners, has overtaken Lee Jae-yong, chairman of Samsung Electronics, to reclaim the top spot as the richest Korean asset holder.
According to the global billionaire rankings released by the American business magazine Forbes on the 1st (local time), Kim Byung-joo, chairman of MBK, ranked 280th overall with assets worth $9.8 billion (approximately 14.3874 trillion KRW), making him the top Korean. Although Kim holds American nationality, he was born in Jinhae, Gyeongnam (currently Jinhae-gu, Changwon City).
He surpassed not only Lee Jae-yong, chairman of Samsung Electronics, who was ranked first last year with $8.2 billion, but also Cho Jung-ho, chairman of Meritz Financial Group and the richest Korean national with $8.4 billion. Cho and Lee ranked 361st and 369th overall, respectively.
Kim’s assets increased by about $100 million from $9.7 billion last year. However, Lee Jae-yong’s net worth plummeted from $11.5 billion to $8.2 billion, allowing Kim to regain the top spot among Korean billionaires. Kim also held the top position in 2023 with $9.7 billion.
Kim ranked 53rd globally in the financial investment sector. The top spot in this category was held by Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, whose assets were valued at $154 billion (6th overall). Following him were Michael Bloomberg, former New York mayor and founder of Bloomberg News (14th, $105 billion), and Changpeng Zhao, former CEO of Binance (24th, $62.9 billion). Among Asians, Masayoshi Son, chairman of SoftBank, ranked 11th in financial investment with $29.4 billion (60th overall).
In the ranking of Korean billionaires, following Cho Jung-ho and Lee Jae-yong were ▲ Seo Jung-jin, chairman of Celltrion Group ($7.1 billion, 464th overall) ▲ Chung Mong-koo, honorary chairman of Hyundai Motor Group ($4.2 billion, 868th overall) ▲ Kim Beom-su, founder of Kakao ($3.6 billion, 1015th overall) ▲ Chung Eui-sun, chairman of Hyundai Motor Group ($3.5 billion, 1045th overall) ▲ Hong Ra-hee, honorary director of Samsung Museum of Art Leeum ($3.3 billion, 1108th overall) ▲ Lee Boo-jin, CEO of Hotel Shilla ($3.3 billion, 1108th overall) ▲ Lee Seo-hyun, president of Samsung C&T ($3.0 billion, 1219th overall) ▲ Kwon Hyuk-bin, founder of Smilegate ($2.6 billion, 1408th overall) ranked among the top. Like Kim Byung-joo, Kim Beom-seok, chairman of the board with American nationality but Korean descent, ranked 929th overall with $3.9 billion.
Meanwhile, the world’s richest person remains Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla. His assets increased by more than 75% from $195 billion last year to $342 billion. He was followed by Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms ($216 billion), Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon ($215 billion), and Larry Ellison, chairman of Oracle ($192 billion). The Arnault family, chairpersons of Louis Vuitton Mo?t Hennessy (LVMH), who held the top spot in 2023 and 2024, ranked 5th this year with $178 billion.
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