“Value shines more when we share wealth”…
[금융경제신문=권경희 기자] Chairman Kim Bong-jin, the No. 1 delivery app market share company in Korea, has decided to give back more than half of his wealth to society. Earlier this month, Kakao Chairman of the Board of Directors Kim Beom-soo announced that he would donate more than half of his assets, followed by declarations of donations by a group of founders who will create so-called “national service” in the information and communications technology (ICT) field.
As the representative figures of the self-made family, the return of their wealth to society is markedly different from the existing chaebol companies symbolized as the “passion of wealth”, so they are interested in whether their “big” donations become a stimulus and lead to a procession of donations by the business community. .
According to the world donation club’The Giving Pledge’ on the 18th, Chairman Kim and Bomi Seol were registered as the 219th donors. The Giving Pledge is a charity founded in 2010 by President Warren Buffett Berkshire Hathaway and Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
To be listed as Giving Pledge’s donation pledge, you’ll need to own over $1 billion in assets and donate more than half of your assets. In addition, due diligence in the process of property formation, in-depth interviews, and reputation checks, they must undergo strict qualification screening.
Previously, 218 people from 24 countries (joint names such as couples and families counted as one) participated in the donation. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, film Star Wars director George Lucas, Oracle’s chairman Larry Allison, and former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. Chairman Kim is the first Korean subscriber. Among Asian countries, it is the seventh following China and India.
Chairman Kim, who became the first Korean to pledge to Giving Pledge, promised to give back more than half of his wealth to society. Chairman Kim decided to receive a 9.9% stake from Delivery Hero in Germany in 2019.At the time, it was about 480 billion won, but it is known that the value of the delivery company grew rapidly through the Corona 19 situation, and the size of Chairman Kim’s property exceeded 1 trillion won. It is a promise of over 500 billion won.
The donation that Kakao Chairman Kim Bum-soo decided to make is larger. Currently, Chairman Kim’s share of Kakao is 13.74% and the stock value is about 10 trillion won. The calculation of half of his fortune amounts to 5 trillion won.
Their donations are different even in the scale of’more than half of their property’, but the fact that the purpose of donation is to solve social problems is different from donations of existing’chaebols’. It is also noticeable that the company is drawing a line about succession of management rights without seeing the company as its own.
Both Chairman Bongjin Kim and Chairman Beomsoo Kim suggested solving social problems through donations. Chairman Kim Bong-jin explained, “We are devising step by step to solve the problem of educational inequality, support culture and arts, and create an organization that helps charities do their job better.”
Earlier, Chairman Kim Bum-soo also said, “I made a pledge to donate more than half of my assets to solve social problems while I was living,” and said, “I thought that I should not delay my determination any more while witnessing the deepening of social problems in various fields during the turbulent period. I heard this.” He added, “I will find and support people to solve social problems in areas where Kakao is difficult to access.”
Reporter Kwon Kyung-hee [email protected]
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