[THE INVESTOR] The heads of Korea’s top 10 business conglomerates received a combined 540.5 billion won (US$500.9 million) in dividend payments in 2017, up sharply from a year earlier, a local business research firm said on Feb. 18.

The total given to the businessmen surged 31.9 percent, or 130.6 billion won, from the previous year, Chaebul.com claimed.

Lee Kun-hee, the head of Samsung, South Korea’s largest family-run conglomerate, or chaebol, is expected to receive 306.3 billion won for last year, for a gain of 61 percent from 2016. Of the total, he will get 212.4 billion won from Samsung Electronics alone, the industry tracker said.

The head of Hyundai Motor Group, Chung Mong-koo, is set to take home 88.7 billion won in dividends, mostly unchanged from the year before, while SK Group’s Chey Tae-won will get 65.9 billion won for last year, up 8.1 percent vis-a-vis 2016.

LG Group‘s chief Koo Bon-moo and Lotte head Shin Dong-bin are set to get 25.3 billion won and 15.5 billion won, respectively, with GS chairman Huh Chang-soo is expected to receive 10.3 billion won.

Chaebul.com said Hanwha Group’s chairman Kim Seung-youn’s tally is unknown at present since the conglomerate has yet to announce its dividend payment plan. Kim’s share for the latest report was provisionally set at 10.2 billion won, which was what he got the year before.

Hyundai Robotics top stockholder Chung Mong-joon will not receive dividend payments this year, with numbers for Lee Myung-hee, the chairwomen of retail giant Shinsegae, set at 11.4 billion won. Chung also exerts control over Hyundai Heavy Industries, one of the world‘s largest shipyards.

Park Jeong-won, the head of Doosan, is estimated to get 6.9 billion won for last year.

The latest findings then said that the 10 business leaders received close to 2 trillion won in dividend payments in the past five years, with annual gains averaging 20 percent.

Of the total, Samsung’s Lee got the most (955.2 billion won), followed by the heads of Hyundai Motor, SK and LG.

By Ahn Sung-mi and news wires (sahn@heraldcorp.com)