Scholarship or welfare foundations of the nation’s 10 major business groups were found to hold shares worth more than 4 trillion won ($3.5 billion) in their commercial affiliates such as Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor.

Data compiled by Chaebul.com, which tracks conglomerate-related information, showed Monday that 19 nonprofit foundations, controlled by the 10 conglomerates, collectively own stocks totaling 4.72 trillion won in their profit-making sister firms as of Aug. 29.

While the organizations have been seen to have played a role in carrying out the conglomerates’ social contribution activities, concerns have been raised that their expanded presence could be exploited as a tool for irregular intragroup deals or power transition.

Samsung Group’s three foundations topped the list as their stakes in commercial-oriented affiliates totaled 2.72 trillion won.

Samsung Foundation of Culture owns stocks totaling 1.53 trillion won of affiliates including Samsung Electronics and Samsung Life Insurance. Samsung Life Public Welfare Foundation and Samsung Welfare Foundation own 989.6 billion won and 208.3 billion won, respectively.

Hyundai Heavy Industries’ Asan Foundation and Asan Nanum Foundation hold 549.5 billion won in stocks and Hyundai Motor Group’s Chung Mong-koo Foundation holds 359.2 billion won in their respective profit-making affiliates.

The stock value for foundations of Lotte Group and LG Group comes to 383.5 billion won and 286.3 billion won, respectively.

Those of Hanjin Group had a market capitalization of 179.3 billion won, Doosan Group 148.8 billion won, Hanwha Group 50.8 billion won and GS Group 11.5 billion won.

According to the Chaebul.com data, the stocks (4.72 trillion won) held by the 19 chaebol-based welfare foundations are comparable to about 70 percent of their combined assets of 6.83 trillion won.

A spokesman of the Corporate Governance Service said the situation under which conglomerates secure friendly shareholders could be linked to owners’ irregular power transfer to their heirs.

“The authorities should enhance transparency by instructing the nonprofit entities to disclose detailed earnings and set up regulations for oversight of their voting rights,” he said.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)