Top Conglomerates Donate Less to Charity

Published on 2018/09/23 | Source

Charitable donations by Korea's top 10 listed companies have plunged 15 percent over the last two years.

Conglomerates have cut back on donations since the massive bribery and corruption scandal that led to the ouster of President Park Geun-hye and focused on their largesse to two phony charitable foundations set up by Park's crony Choi Soon-sil.

Since then, companies have required board authorization for charitable donations, making the process more transparent but also more cumbersome.

According to conglomerate tracker Chaebul.com, their charitable donations fell from W980.2 billion in 2015, before the scandal broke, to W838.3 billion last year, down 14.5 percent (US$W1,118).

Donations by Samsung, the biggest benefactor of Choi's rackets, fell the most from W532.4 billion in 2015 to W303.1 billion last year, down 43.1 percent. GS, POSCO and Hyundai's donations fell 34.5, 16.4 and 13.8 percent.

But donations from LG, which was untouched by the scandal, soared 165 percent from W31.5 billion to W83.6 billion, while SK's rose 40 percent from W145.6 billion to W204 billion.