Key Sentence:
- Conglomerate Hyosung Group, is on the billionaire’s list for the first time as shares in industrial materials subsidiary.
- Hyosung Advanced Materials rose more than 400% due the start of the year.
Hyosung Advanced Materials most of its money Cho Hyun-Sang selling tire cords, which help strengthen tires. And accounted for 54 percent of total sales for the Seoul-based company in the second quarter of this year. Revenue is expected in the second quarter due to a 131 percent recovery in demand from automakers to 8.7 trillion won (7.4 billion US dollars)) compared to the same period last year.
More importantly, for optimistic investors about cleaner cars, Hyosung Advanced Materials also makes carbon fiber. The company claims to be the only Korean manufacturer of the lightweight and robust material used in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles – its lesser-known cousin to electric cars. Hydrogen-powered cars take hydrogen gas from the fuel tank and combine it with oxygen from the air to generate electricity. Releasing only water vapor from the exhaust pipe.
According to Hyosung Advanced Materials, carbon fiber is the main ingredient in a hydrogen car’s fuel tank.
Separated and publicly traded in 2018, the company plans to invest 1 trillion won (approximately $850 million) annually until 2028 to expand its only carbon fiber plant in the Southwest Korean city of Jeonju. However, Hyosung Advanced Materials has not announced plans to build a new carbon fiber plant.
Which is preparing to build the world’s largest liquid Hyun-Sang plant, have increased by about 160%; Hyosung Heavy Industries, which makes hydrogen filling stations, grew by about 25%; and Hyosung Corp. increased by more than 60%.
Promoting green projects, including hydrogen cars, Cho Hyun-Sang is a top priority for South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Last year, the Korean government announced that it would invest 114 trillion won ($95 billion). In green projects over five years, including a target of 200,000 hydrogen cars on the road by 2025, up from 5,000 in 2020.
Cho, 49, is the second-largest shareholder in Hyosung Advanced Materials with more than 12 percent.
The largest shareholder is Hyosung Corp., about 21%. Other assets include shares in Hyosung Chemical and Hyosung Heavy Industries and private companies. Such as ATM maker Hyosung TNS, Class Hyosung, and real estate company Shin Dong Jin. Together, Forbes estimates his net worth at $1.4 billion.
Hyun-sang, a new billionaire, was first inducted Cho Hyun-Sang into the list of Korea’s 50 wealthiest people in 2017 with a net worth of $700 million. The following year, it was removed from the list because Hyosung Corp. decreased after the corporate restructuring. Which included the separation of four companies (Hyosung Advanced Materials, Hyosung Chemical, Hyosung Heavy Industries, and Hyosung TNC).
Hyun-sang’s older brother Hyun-Joon, chairman of Hyosung Corp.
Came last on the list of Korea’s 50 wealthiest people in 2018 with a fortune of over $1 billion. Hyun-Joon, who was sentenced to three years’ probation for embezzlement and breach of trust last November. Also benefited from the increase in Hyosung’s stock and grossed over $1 billion.
Before joining the family business in 2000, Hyun-sang, a graduate of Brown University, was a consultant at Bain & Company and worked for the Japanese telecommunications provider NTT. Elsewhere in Korea, too, Lee Sang-rul, founder and co-CEO of chemical company Chunbo. Recently became a billionaire amid a growing craze for clean vehicles. Lee’s company makes chemicals for lithium-ion batteries that power electric cars.