Asian Tech Press (Sep 14) -- Kim Beom-soo, the founder of South Korean Internet giant Kakao Corp. (KRX: 035720), has fallen from the top position in a list of the country's richest people after local media revealed that he is under investigation by the country's antitrust regulators.
Numerous South Korean media reported that the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) is investigating Kim Beom-soo for allegedly concealing or fabricating necessary information about his wholly owned investment company K Cube Holdings, which holds a 10.59% stake in Kakao.
K Cube is the de facto holding company for Kakao, which operates the popular messaging app for about 46 million local users, as well as providing online payments and taxi services.
The KFTC recently visited Kakao's headquarters and K Cube's offices in order to investigate whether the business violated the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act (MRFTA), The Korea Times reported Monday.
The news effectively pulled Kim Beom-soo off the top spot in the list of South Korea's richest person and further shrunk his fortune. Just a few days ago, regulators made it clear that they were determined to crack down on tech giants that may be abusing their dominant market position.
In less than three months, with the regulators in action, Kim Beom-soo's fortune has evaporated by nearly $5 billion since hitting a record $16.2 billion in late June.
As of press time, Kim Beom-soo's fortune stood at about $11.6 billion, behind biopharmaceutical giant Celltrion founder Seo Jung-jin, according to Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List.
Meanwhile, Kakao shares have also taken a hit, with a steady decline from the opening of trading Tuesday. And by noon, it had fallen about 5%.
Later in the afternoon, the stocks gradually recovered. And Kakao fell 0.4% today and closed at 124,000 won ($106) per share.
(US$1=1,169.8565 KRW)
