MBK Partners co-founder tops 50 richest S.Koreans: Forbes

Michael ByungJu Kim, co-founder and partner at private equity firm MBK Partners, has topped the ranking of the 50 richest South Koreans by net worth, according to Forbes on Monday.

Kim, who ranked third last year, saw his net worth increase by $2 billion to $9.7 billion. Samsung Electronics Co. Chairman Jay Y. Lee, who posted $8 billion, held onto second place for the third year in a row, followed by biopharma giant Celltrion Group’s founder Seo Jung-jin, who took the third spot with $5.7 billion.

Gaming company Smilegate Holdings Inc. founder and Chief Visionary Officer Kwon Hyuk-bin ranked fourth with $5.1 billion, while Kakao Corp. founder Kim Beom-su (Brian Kim), who topped the ranking last year, slipped to fifth with $5 billion.

Forbes said that the Kospi index fell 9% last year amid rate hikes and a slump in demand for tech goods. That together with a weaker won resulted in the collective wealth of the country’s 50 richest falling 18% to $106 billion over the past year, it added.

The co-founder of MBK, who topped the ranking for the first time, was also named Asia's Heroes of Philanthropy by Forbes last year. Alongside gaming company Nexon's founder late Kim Jung-ju, Kim was among 15 philanthropists chosen by the magazine for the honor in the Asia Pacific.

He co-founded MBK in Seoul in 2005 after leaving Carlyle Asia Partners. The North Asia-focused PE firm manages $26 billion in assets with commitments from about 150 global institutional investors, including Korea’s National Pension Service (NPS), Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB).

Since its foundation, the asset manager has made 68 investments and 38 realizations as well as distributed $18.3 billion to its investors, one of the highest totals in the North Asian region.    

MBK’s funds strongly performed amid the pandemic between 2020 and 2022, the co-founder said in an annual letter to investors earlier this month.

The firm raised $9.7 billion in capital, deployed $7.1 billion in investments and distributed $7.4 billion, the largest amount returned during the period in Asia, according to the letter. After the distributions, it has $11.2 billion remaining in fair market value in the portfolio.

Write to Jun-Ho Cha at chacha@hankyung.com

Jihyun Kim edited this article.