Top 100 Companies' Economic Contribution Reaches 1,731 Trillion Won... Samsung Electronics Leads with 177 Trillion Won

Survey of Top 100 Companies by Sales Among Top 500 Firms
Economic Contribution Surpasses 1,700 Trillion Won Last Year
Shareholder Returns Contribute to Enhancing Corporate Value

The total economic contribution of the top 100 companies in South Korea last year exceeded 1,700 trillion won. In particular, the scale of shareholder returns—including share buybacks and cancellations—increased significantly compared to the previous year, which is analyzed to have contributed to enhancing corporate value.

According to a survey by the corporate data research institute CEO Score on July 8, which targeted the top 100 companies by sales among the 500 largest companies designated in 2026 that submitted business reports, the total economic contribution of these companies last year amounted to 1,731 trillion 159.9 billion won. Public enterprises and financial companies were excluded from the survey.

This figure represents a 7.4% increase, or 118 trillion 687.7 billion won more, compared to 1,612 trillion 472.2 billion won in the previous year.

Economic contribution refers to the total amount of economic value generated by a company through its business activities.

The combined sales of the top 100 companies last year reached 2,290 trillion 847.2 billion won, up 8.3% year-on-year. However, the ratio of economic contribution to sales was 75.6%, down by 0.6 percentage points from 76.2% in the previous year.

CEO Score

By company, Samsung Electronics ranked first among the top 100 companies, with 177 trillion 249.7 billion won. This was an increase of 19 trillion 712.1 billion won (12.5%) from 157 trillion 537.6 billion won in 2024.

It was followed by Hyundai Motor Company (122 trillion 243.2 billion won), Kia (92 trillion 71.8 billion won), LG Electronics (77 trillion 104.4 billion won), Hyundai Mobis (56 trillion 213.9 billion won), SK On (52 trillion 334 billion won), Hanwha (44 trillion 926.1 billion won), SK hynix (43 trillion 630.6 billion won), GS Caltex (42 trillion 833.9 billion won), and SK Energy (37 trillion 348.6 billion won).

By segment, support funds for partner companies accounted for the largest share of the total economic contribution at 1,405 trillion 746.5 billion won, or 81.2%.

This was followed by employees (226 trillion 642.5 billion won), shareholders (41 trillion 863.6 billion won), the government (30 trillion 640.7 billion won), creditors (24 trillion 856.7 billion won), and society (1 trillion 410 billion won).

In particular, the surge in the shareholder return segment stood out, reflecting the government's policies to enhance shareholder value and support stock prices. Within shareholder returns, dividends amounted to 30 trillion 650.7 billion won, a 12.1% increase from 27 trillion 342.3 billion won in the previous year. Share cancellations soared 160.5%, rising from 4 trillion 305 billion won to 11 trillion 212.9 billion won, an increase of 6 trillion 907.9 billion won (160.5%).

Samsung Electronics also ranked first in shareholder returns. The company's shareholder return last year totaled 14 trillion 156.9 billion won, consisting of 11 trillion 107.9 billion won in dividends and 3 trillion 49 billion won in share cancellations. Among the top 100 companies, Samsung Electronics was the only one with shareholder returns exceeding 10 trillion won.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.