Nexon late founder’s family inherits all his shares

The wife and two daughters of Nexon’s late founder Kim Jung-ju have inherited all his shares in the game developer’s holding company NXC Corp., the company said on Thursday.

Kim died unexpectedly at the age of 54 in February of this year. He had been treated for depression.

The late founder's family now holds a combined 96.92% stake in NXC, including Kim’s 67.49% stake.

Of his NXC shares, a 4.57% stake was handed over to his wife Yoo Jung-hyun, who serves as the company’s auditor. She has now become the largest NXC shareholder with a 34% stake.

Their two daughters each inherited 30.78% of the company, bringing each of their ownership levels to 31.46%.

NXC controls 46.2% of Tokyo-listed Nexon, which has a market value of 24 trillion won ($17 billion). The gaming company Nexon owns 100% of its Korean entity.

The engineer-turned-entrepreneur was one of the few billionaires in South Korea. His bereaved family is expected to inherit over 10 trillion won ($7.2 billion) from the late founder and pay about 6 trillion won ($4.3 billion) in inheritance taxes.

They are expected to pay the taxes in installments over the next 10 years, using dividend incomes and securities-backed loans.

In 1996, Nexon released the world's first massively multiplayer online role-playing game, the Kingdom of the Winds, followed by other hit titles MapleStory, Dungeon Fighter and KartRide.

The ownership change will unlikely have an immediate effect on its management. NXC shifted into a professional management system last year, after the late Kim resigned as chief executive.

Write to Seung-Woo Lee at leeswoo@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article