Samsung Electronics creates $216 bn social wealth in 2022

Samsung Electronics Co. created 281.4 trillion won ($216 billion) worth of social wealth in 2022, meaning it distributed that amount of wealth to other companies and households around the world.

According to its annual sustainability report released on Thursday, the value of the social wealth it created was up 19.1% from the previous year, in tandem with its facility expansion. It is the largest-ever amount of social wealth a South Korean company has generated.

It is a measure of a so-called trickle-down effect, in which wealth is distributed from one party to another, contributing to job creation and consumption growth.

The figure encompasses payments made to its contractors, employees and other related parties. Dividends, taxes and interest are also added to the sum, as well as donations.

Between 2018 and 2022, Samsung created a total of 1,190 trillion won in social wealth, 60% to 70% of which is estimated to have been distributed within South Korea.

In detail, payments to contractors made up the lion’s share with 219.8 trillion won, up 14.5% on-year. Its major domestic suppliers include Hansol Chemical Co., Soulbrain Co., Young Poong Electronics Co., Power Logics Co. and BH Co.

Employee wages jumped 8.7% on-year to 37.6 trillion won. Last year, its employees totaled 270,372 at home and abroad, marking the first increase in five years. Between 2018 and 2021 its employee numbers shrunk.

TAXES, DIVIDENDS

Last year, Samsung paid 13 trillion won in taxes, its largest-ever payment since the company posted its strongest results in 2018. That year, its corporate taxes amounted to 17.8 trillion won.

Of the 2022 tax payments, 74% was funneled into South Korea’s state coffers.

Its 2022 dividend payments of 9.8 trillion won, unchanged from the previous year, went to 5.8 million individual shareholders.

Assuming 70% of the social value Samsung created last year was distributed within South Korea, it contributed about 10% to the country’s nominal gross domestic product of 2,162 trillion won.

Its contribution to the domestic economy is expected to rise further as it plans to spend 300 trillion won to build a system semiconductor cluster in the Yongin industrial complex by 2042 in the Seoul Metropolitan Area.

In 2022, its interest payments to financial institutions and donations reached 800 billion won and 400 billion won, respectively.

Write to Ik-Hwan Kim at lovepen@hankyung.com

Yeonhee Kim edited this article.