Who will shine in Year of Dog?
By Lee Min-hyung
In Korea, 2018 represents the year of the dog under the 12-year cycle of the animal zodiac.
With a new year upon us, a sense of expectation is rising across all industrial sectors.
Local companies and their CEOs expect their businesses to prosper in the coming year and play a part in further boosting the economy.
Business leaders, particularly born in the year of the dog, are gaining attention here over whether they can benefit from astrological good fortune.
This past year, the Korean economy has undergone a series of ups and downs due to political and economic uncertainties here and abroad. They include the Chinese government’s retaliation on major Korean companies over the nation’s decision to deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system here.
In particular, Hyundai Motor Group has suffered huge setbacks this year, hit hard by China’s political revenge, with its sales there dropping 40 percent in the first half of the year compared to a year earlier. The company is one of the nation’s four largest conglomerates in terms of market capitalization.
At Hyundai, the most influential tycoon is Chung Eui-sun, who serves as the vice chairman and the de facto heir to the group. Chung, 48, is also one of the most famous business leaders born in the year of the dog, which raises hopes he can become a savior to drive up the firm’s sagging profits in Asia’s largest market next year.
Hotel Shilla CEO Lee Boo-jin is also the same age as Chung. For the luxury hotel chain operator, next year will likely become a major turning point to drive up its profitability. The company, which also runs a global duty free shop chain, recently won a license to operate duty free stores at Jeju International Airport on the nation’s southern resort island of Jeju.
The Samsung Group heirless is renowned for her charismatic management and business agility. Under her leadership, Shilla Duty Free Store opened for business recently at Hong Kong International Airport.
This allows the company to operate its duty free businesses at three major international airports in Asia - including Incheon International Airport and Singapore Changi Airport.
Other high-profile business leaders born in the year of the dog are Kim Ki-nam, president at Samsung Electronics’ chip unit, and SK hynix Vice Chairman Park Sung-wook. They are also the same age, 59.
The two business leaders head the world’s two largest memory chip makers. Kim became chief of the world’s largest DRAM and NAND chipmaker this year. Samsung Electronics has enjoyed its heyday this year on an unprecedented boom in the global memory chip industry, with prices for its chips soaring amid growing demand for chips with higher storage capacity.
This also enabled the company to report a record operating profit of 14.53 trillion won ($13.6 billion) in the third quarter.
The outlook for its chip prices remains rosy next year, as demand for memory chips continues to grow amid growing demand for semiconductors that can save more datasets.
Park has led the world’s second-largest DRAM manufacturer since December last year. SK hynix is also expected to continue its winning streak next year. According to data from Shinhan Financial Investment, estimated 2018 sales for the company will top 39.8 trillion won.
The bright outlook comes as the company will likely enjoy the increasing DRAM price, with global IT firms and server management firms requiring more and more chips to save surging amount of datasets.
Mirae Asset Financial Group Chairman Park Hyeon-joo is also another noteworthy figure born in the year of the dog. The 59-year-old entrepreneur runs the nation’s largest asset management company, which is expanding its global foothold in countries such as China and the United States.
According to data from corporate tracker CEO Score, more than eight percent of the surveyed 1,482 business leaders of the nation’s top 500 companies were born in the year of the dog.