The number of affiliates held by Korea's top 10 conglomerates increased sharply over the past years, a report showed Thursday, pointing to more concentration of economic influence by a few large-sized companies.
According to the report by the Fair Trade Commission, the affiliates of the top 10 conglomerates or chaebol, including Samsung, SK and Lotte, totaled 583 as of April this year, up from 347 tallied in the same month in 2005.
Over the past seven years, the number of their affiliates grew by 236, meaning that it increased an average of 33.7 every year.
SK came in first with the largest increase in the number by holding 91 affiliates this year, up from 50 in 2005. Samsung came next with 79, followed by Lotte and GS with 77 and 74, respectively, the report showed.
"Large business groups increased their affiliates by expanding their businesses, mostly into IT, bio, environment and other new growth areas," an FTC official said.
Conglomerates here are credited with helping the country's economic growth over the past decades by spearheading exports, but they are frequently blamed for hurting smaller companies in business relations by using their market domination. (Yonhap)