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Photo courtesy of the Korea Fair Trade Commission |
[Alpha Biz= Kim Jisun] Seoul, South Korea — Internal transactions at Korea’s major conglomerates continue to remain highly concentrated, with the five largest business groups—Hyundai Motor, SK, Samsung, POSCO and HD Hyundai—accounting for more than 65% of all disclosed intra-group transactions. In particular, internal transactions among the top ten chaebol groups with controlling owners accounted for nearly 70% of total activity.
The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) on December 3 released its analysis of 2024 intra-group transaction data for the 92 business groups designated as disclosure targets for 2025. Since 2011, the KFTC has published such data annually to promote market transparency and improve conglomerates’ internal transaction practices through public oversight.
According to the report, internal transactions among domestic affiliates of the designated groups accounted for 12.3% of their total transactions, amounting to KRW 281 trillion. Private (unlisted) companies recorded a significantly higher internal transaction ratio at 21.7%, nearly three times that of listed companies (7.4%).
Transactions with overseas affiliates were even larger, with an intra-group share of 22.6% and total value reaching KRW 515 trillion, which is 1.83 times larger than internal transactions among domestic affiliates.
Among business groups with controlling owners, domestic affiliates’ internal transaction share with overseas units stood at 25.3% (KRW 496 trillion)—more than twice the share of internal transactions with domestic affiliates (11.8%, KRW 232 trillion).
The groups with the highest internal transaction ratios in 2024 were Daebang Construction (32.9%), JungAng (28.3%), POSCO (27.5%), BS (25.9%), and Coupang (25.8%). Daebang Construction, JungAng, and POSCO remained in the top tier for the second consecutive year.
In terms of transaction volume, the largest business groups were:
Hyundai Motor Group: KRW 59.9 trillion
SK Group: KRW 52.8 trillion
Samsung Group: KRW 33.7 trillion
POSCO Group: KRW 25.1 trillion
HD Hyundai Group: KRW 13.3 trillion
These five groups recorded combined internal transactions totaling KRW 184.8 trillion, representing 65.7% of the entire market total (KRW 281.2 trillion).
Among business groups with controlling owners, the top ten groups have maintained an average internal transaction ratio of around 13% over the past decade. In 2024, these ten groups’ internal transactions amounted to KRW 193 trillion, or 68.7% of the total across all disclosure groups.
Over the past decade, the groups that recorded the steepest increases in internal transaction ratios were HD Hyundai (+7.0 percentage points) and Hanwha (+4.6 percentage points), while the largest declines were seen at LG (–7.3 percentage points) and Lotte (–2.4 percentage points).
Internal transactions were most concentrated within the top three affiliates at SK, HD Hyundai, and Hanwha. On an individual company basis, SK Energy (KRW 24.4 trillion) and Hyundai Mobis (KRW 22.3 trillion) each exceeded KRW 20 trillion in internal transaction volume, the highest among all affiliates.
Alphabiz Reporter Kim Jisun(stockmk2020@alphabiz.co.kr)
