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Hanwha Group breaks into Korea's top 5 conglomerates list for first time

Published: 30 Apr. 2026, 10:33 Updated: 30 Apr. 2026, 17:59

Hanwha Group's headquarters in Jung District, central Seoul [JOONGANG ILBO]

Hanwha Group broke into Korea’s top five conglomerates for the first time, overtaking Lotte and Posco due to its defense and energy-focused business restructuring and aggressive acquisitions.

The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) announced the results of its 2026 designated large business group classification on Wednesday.

Samsung retained the top spot, with its total assets worth 695.775 trillion won ($468.5 billion). SK, Hyundai Motor and LG held steady in second through fourth place, respectively. Hanwha, which ranked seventh last year, saw its total assets grow to 149.605 trillion won, pushing past Lotte and Posco to fifth place for the first time. Lotte and Posco each dropped one place to sixth and seventh, respectively.

Under the Fair Trade Act, the FTC annually designates business groups with total assets of 5 trillion won or more as “large business groups.” It further classifies those with assets equal to at least 0.5 percent of GDP — 12 trillion won this year — as “cross-shareholding-restricted groups,” a stricter designation that limits affiliates’ ability to hold shares in one another, a practice that can artificially inflate a group’s apparent size and entrench ownership control.

People walk past the Samsung logo displayed on a glass door at the company's Seocho building in Seoul on April 30, 2025. [AFP/YONHAP]

Hanwha’s rise is attributed to its restructuring around defense and energy, as well as active mergers and acquisitions, which aligned with growing geopolitical risks and rising defense demand. The concentration of its growth in defense, however, means that it remains exposed to shifts in economic conditions and international affairs. The conglomerate also has businesses in sectors such as finance and insurance, construction, energy and shipbuilding.

Other defense companies also rose in the rankings, with Korea Aerospace Industries climbing from 62nd to 53rd and LIG rising from 69th to 63rd.

“Changes in the external environment, including intensifying geopolitical conflicts and developments in the United States, have influenced the rankings,” Choi Jang-Kwan, the director of the FTC’s conglomerate monitoring bureau, said.

Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn, center, and Vice Chairman Kim Dong-kwan, far left, inspect a full-scale model of a 15-centimeter (6-inch), ultrahigh-resolution synthetic-aperture radar satellite in very low Earth orbit during their visit to Hanwha Systems’ Jeju Hanwha Space Center on Jeju Island on Jan. 8. [HANWHA GROUP]

K-beauty and K-food companies also made notable gains on the back of the country’s pop culture scene.

Kolmar Korea entered the designated large business group list for the first time due to an expansion in scale from growth in its pharmaceutical and bio businesses, an increased share of overseas revenue and its core cosmetics original design manufacturing business. Orion, the food conglomerate best known for Choco Pies, also made the list, driven by rising sales in overseas markets, including China and Vietnam.

Energy and industrial electrical equipment conglomerate LS, which ranked 15th last year, overtook food, entertainment and logistics conglomerate CJ, which had ranked 14th, with LS’s total assets rising from 35.952 trillion won to 41.651 trillion won.

Acquisitions also drove notable ranking changes, with food and IT conglomerate Woongjin, which acquired Preedlife, and Kyobo Life Insurance, which bought SBI Savings Bank, both joining the list of cross-shareholding restricted business groups.

The buoyant stock market led to a sharp increase in assets among securities firms. For instance, Daou Kiwoom, which specializes in IT services, software and finance, had total assets of 10.386 trillion won last year — a figure that grew to 12.241 trillion won this year, designating the company as a cross-shareholding restricted business group for the first time. Fintech Toss also entered the designated large business group list after its total assets surpassed 5 trillion won.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY JANG WON-SEOK, PARK YOUNG-WOO [[email protected]]