[비즈한국] Chung Yong-jin, Chairman of Shinsegae004170 Group, has officially initiated an independent management system for E-mart139480. He has decided to purchase a 10% stake in E-mart held by General Chairman Lee Myung-hee. By acquiring the entirety of his mother’s stake, Chairman Chung will now present a "Chung Yong-jin-style E-mart," and with it, his sense of responsibility has become all the more significant.
Character
Chairman Chung Yong-jin was born in Seoul on September 19, 1968. He is the eldest son of Shinsegae Honorary Chairman Chung Jae-eun and Shinsegae Group General Chairman Lee Myung-hee; his younger sister is Chung Yoo-kyung, Chairman of Shinsegae Inc. He graduated from Kyungbock High School and entered the Department of Western History at Seoul National University but dropped out after about a year. He subsequently entered Brown University in the United States, where he majored in economics. In 1993, he married actress Go Hyun-jung and had a son, Hae-chan, and a daughter, Hae-in. However, they divorced in 2003 after 10 years of marriage. In 2011, he remarried flutist Han Ji-hee, with whom he has fraternal twins, a boy and a girl.
He is known as an animal lover. In 2015, he reportedly kept as many as 30 pet dogs. He is particularly fond of standard poodles. He even launched a pet specialty store called "Molly's Pet Shop," named after his own pet dog, Molly. Cooking is his hobby. He owns a personal cooking studio and enjoys inviting acquaintances over to cook for them. He is considered a business influencer who is active on social media. Currently, Chairman Chung has over 800,000 followers on social media. While his vigorous activity earned him the nickname "Brother Yong-jin" among the public, he has barely been active on social media since his inauguration as chairman in March of last year. His MBTI type is INFJ.
Career
After graduating from university, Chairman Chung worked for one year in the distribution division of Korea Fujitsu and the management support office of Samsung C&T before joining Shinsegae Group in 1995 as a director in the strategic planning team of the group's corporate strategy office. He was promoted to executive director of the planning and coordination office in 1997 and served as vice president of the management support office in 2000. After rising to the position of vice chairman of Shinsegae Group in 2006, he was promoted to chairman in 2024, 18 years later. He founded the professional baseball team SSG Landers in 2021 and currently serves as its owner.
Capability
Known as a gourmet, Chairman Chung Yong-jin has led the food and beverage business at Shinsegae. A representative achievement is Starbucks. Chairman Chung, who enjoyed visiting Starbucks during his studies in the U.S., brought the brand to Korea in 1999. In 2010, he secured the Korean business rights for the American brand Dean & DeLuca, opening locations in Shinsegae Department Store. He is also highly interested in wine and has worked to expand the wine business through Shinsegae L&B. He is also known to have actively contributed business ideas during the launch of Devil's Door, a craft beer specialty restaurant.
Starfield is one of Chairman Chung's ambitious projects. He has such a high level of interest in the Starfield business that he personally chose the name "Starfield." Starting with the Hanam branch in 2016, Starfield now operates five locations in Suwon, Goyang, Anseong, and Myeongji, and is widely evaluated as having successfully established itself in the offline retail market.
He also put effort into launching E-mart's private brand, No Brand. In 2015, Chairman Chung created the "E-mart Secret Research Institute" at the E-mart headquarters to develop new products and services. The first outcome of this institute was the launch of "No Brand." As of 2023, No Brand's annual sales reached 1.38 trillion KRW. The brand has also expanded into Vietnam, Mongolia, the Philippines, and Laos.
In December of last year, news of Chairman Chung meeting and speaking with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump became a hot topic. Invited by Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., Chairman Chung stayed at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort from December 16 to 21, 2024, where he met the President-elect. It is said they spoke for 10 to 15 minutes and had a meal together. Chairman Chung is the first South Korean business leader to meet the President-elect since the U.S. presidential election. The news caused Shinsegae's stock price to fluctuate. Chairman Chung is also scheduled to attend the presidential inauguration ceremony held in Washington D.C. on the 20th (local time).
Critical
Among the projects Chairman Chung initiated with great enthusiasm, several were withdrawn due to poor performance. In 2018, he launched "Pierrot Shopping," a domestic store benchmarked after the Japanese discount chain "Don Quijote," but the business was shut down in less than two years due to continued losses. In 2016, he spent 19 billion KRW to acquire Jeju Soju, but it was sold to Oriental Brewery (OB) last year due to poor business performance. Drugstores like Boons and Boots, as well as Centen and Stonebrick (often referred to as "Chung Yong-jin cosmetics"), were also withdrawn from the market due to poor results.
The acquisition of G-Market, considered the largest M&A in the group's history, has also yet to receive positive reviews. To expand his e-commerce business, Chairman Chung spent 3.444 trillion KRW to acquire G-Market in 2021. However, G-Market has been unable to shake off its deficit, making it a "sore thumb" for E-mart.
Challenges
On the 12th, E-mart announced that Chairman Chung would purchase 2,787,582 shares (10%) of E-mart common stock held by General Chairman Lee Myung-hee via an off-hours trade between February 10 and March 11. The price per share was set at 76,800 KRW, bringing the total amount to 214.086 billion KRW. By choosing to purchase the full amount rather than receiving it as a gift, Chairman Chung is investing his own personal assets to acquire the General Chairman's stake. Once the purchase is complete, Chairman Chung's stake in E-mart will rise from 18.56% to 28.56%. As General Chairman Lee's stake disappears, Chairman Chung's independent management will truly begin in earnest.
Chairman Chung's sense of responsibility for E-mart's management has also increased. E-mart has been struggling with poor performance, including recording its first operating loss in its history in 2023. Voluntary retirement programs were implemented twice last year, and a large number of underperforming subsidiary executives were replaced. Although E-mart succeeded in improving performance in the third quarter, the outlook for this year is not particularly bright due to the deteriorating business environment.
Chairman Chung has partnered with China's Alibaba Group to enhance G-Market's competitiveness. The strategy is to establish a joint venture with Alibaba International to create synergy between G-Market and AliExpress. However, because G-Market and AliExpress are expected to operate as independent platforms, the industry is expressing skepticism about the synergy of the joint venture. This is because Shinsegae failed to produce the expected synergy even after forming an alliance with Naver through a share swap in 2021. The group is also preparing the Hwaseong International Theme Park project, which involves a total project cost of 4.5693 trillion KRW. This is a time when the focus is on how Chairman Chung, who has stepped out from under General Chairman Lee's shadow to usher in the "Chung Yong-jin era," will lead E-mart.