Ex-ruling party chief ranks No. 1 in dividend earnings

Former ruling party chief Chung Mong-joon had the highest stock dividend earnings in the 2010 fiscal year, a local Internet portal site on business conglomerates showed Wednesday.

Chaebol.com said Chung, who owns 10.8 percent, or 821 million shares, in Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., the world's largest shipyard, took home 57.47 billion won ($51.45 million) in the one-year period, a 100 percent gain from the year before.

In the 2009 fiscal year the six-term Grand National Party lawmaker earned 28.74 billion won thanks to his stock holdings.

The total places him at the top of the list, surpassing the 51.08 billion won in earnings for Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee, who ranked first in the previous year. Lee's earnings had increased 24.3 percent on-year from 41.09 billion won tallied for the 2009 fiscal year.

Other businessmen who received large dividend earnings were Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo and LG Group Chairman Koo Bon-moo, who received 38.37 billion won and 18.72 billion won, respectively, from the conglomerates they controlled.

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won made the top five list by getting 15.64 billion won.

The Internet portal, meanwhile, said that thanks to overall improvement in business conditions, the country's 10 largest conglomerates handed out 200.11 billion won in cash dividends to shareholders in the one-year period, a gain of 40.9 percent from 141.97 billion won handed out during the previous year. (Yonhap)