Her name may not ring a bell, but Kim Jung-youn has been a “rare bird” since 2022. Almost without equal. And she is because she has unexpectedly acquired an exceptional condition: she is unusually rich at an unusually young age. Hence, in December they pointed out her as the precocious billionaire in the world and that her name just slipped under 20 years old, along with her older sister, Kim Jung-Min, on the Forbes list of young people. wealthier.
His fortune is due to a rather striking mix: the profits generated by the video game industry… and a family misfortune.
Who are Kim Jung-youn and Kim Jung-min? Not much is known about them, beyond a couple of biographical brushstrokes. His father was Kim Jung-ju, a South Korean businessman, co-founder of the Asian video game giant, Nexon, behind popular titles such as ‘MapleStory’, ‘The Kingdom of the Winds’ or ‘KartRider’. Now deceased, Kim Jung-ju also had his own holding company, NXC Corporation, with a significant stake in Nexon, and a fortune that made him the third richest person in his country.
In December The Economic Times claimed that Kim Jung-youn was 18 years old. Forbes slips that she would now be 19 and calculates that her sister Jung-Min is around 21, although she acknowledges that she has not been able to reliably confirm the data, proof of the scant information that is handled about both young women.
And how have they become billionaires? The fortune they manage comes from the world of video games, but the jump to the Forbes list has been given by a family misfortune. In 2022, the death of his father, Jung-ju, 54, was revealed. “The deceased had been receiving treatment for depression and we are saddened that he appears to have worsened recently,” NXC said in reporting the news. Although Jung-ju carried out an important work as a philanthropist and was a well-known figure in the Asian sector, his nature was very reserved.
The last Forbes ranking before his death ranked him the third-richest person in South Korea, behind only pharmaceutical magnate Seo Jung-jin and Samsung’s Jay Y. Lee. His estate was valued at $10.9 billion. After the tragedy, both sisters inherited a considerable sum.
But… what did they inherit? According to The Economic Times, both Kim Jung-youn and her older sister inherited equally a 30.78% stake each in NXC, their father’s holding company and which, at least in the fall, was the largest shareholder in Nexon, with a share of almost 48%.
The Asian media and Forbes specified in 2022 that both sisters already had shares in the company, with which, after those received after the death of their father, the value of each of their shares in the company would amount to 2,500 million dollars. To this sum, however, the large taxes that are applied to inheritances in South Korea would have to be subtracted, which would leave the sisters with an estimated value of 1,000 million each.
Have they been the only heirs? In compiling its list of the 15 youngest billionaires of 2023, sorted by age, Forbes includes the two sisters, assigning a net worth of $1.7 billion. Part of the legacy of the South Korean businessman, however, would have gone to Kim’s mother, 53, who was already a billionaire and participated in the founding of Nexon. Her participation in NXC was 34% in December, according to the Economic Times.
What other names are on the list? In its list, Forbes cites 15 billionaires aged 30 or less, citing them from oldest to youngest. The ranking is started by Ben Francis, a Briton recently arrived in his thirties with a net worth of 1.2 billion dollars and who amassed his fortune thanks to the sportswear brand Gymshark. Something more, 1,700 million, is attributed to the American Palmer Luckey, born in 1992, founder of VR Oculus and behind Anduril.
The person in charge of closing the list is not Jung-youn, whom Forbes calculates to be 19 years old, although he does not have reliable data in this regard. The brooch as the world’s youngest billionaire is put by Clemente Del Vecchio, an 18-year-old Italian with a net worth of 3.5 billion. His fortune is also the result of an inheritance: the one he received from his father, Leonardo Del Vecchio, founder of Luxottica, behind such popular brands as Costa, Ray-Ban or Oakley. Leonardo died at the age of 87, at the end of June 2022, months after Kim Jung-ju.
Cover Image: Alexander Gray (Unsplash)
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