[THE INVESTOR] Eight chaebol rely on controversial cross-shareholding among their affiliated companies to strengthen their owner families’ control over the entire group, the antitrust watchdog said on July 7.

They are Samsung, Hyundai Motor, Lotte, Hyundai Heavy, Daelim, Hyundai Department Store, Yong Poong, and Hyundai Devopement Group.

Korean conglomerates are accused of having wielded extra influence over their subsidiaries through complicated intra-group shareholding arrangements. The Fair Trade Commission revised the local antitrust law in 2014 to tighten a ban on the cobweb-like shareholding system among subsidiaries of large companies with more than 5 trillion won (US$4.3 billion) in total assets.

As a result, the number of conglomerates with such cross-shareholding structure was reduced to eight as of April, sharply down from 11 tallied a year ago, said the FTC.

The number of cross-shareholding tie-ups at conglomerates fell from 459 to 94 over the one-year period, with Hansol Group, Hanjin Group and Halla Group solving the illegal structure.

The sharp decline came as Lotte Group, the fifth-largest business group in terms of asset, reduced its intra-group shareholding links to 67 from 416 following the FTC instructions.

But the retail giant still accounts for 71.3 percent of the total 94 linkups.

Lotte’s founder and immediate family members hold managerial rights in the entire group, whose 87 affiliates ranging from food, hotels and amusement parks to construction and chemicals, through just 2.4 percent stake in the businesses.

The FTC has focused on resolving cross-shareholding ties derived from intra-group mergers and acquisitions among affiliates of big-name business groups, noting that the mergers have effectively strengthened cross-shareholding ties within the conglomerates.

Late last year, it ordered Samsung SDI, an affiliate of the country’s largest conglomerate Samsung Group, to sell part of its stake in Samsung C&T, which was newly launched after a merger with Cheil Industries on Sept. 1.

The watchdog also ordered Hyundai Motor Group to sell 8.81 million shares that the group holds in the unified Hyundai Steel by Jan. 1, 2016.

(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)