Billionaire Kim Jung-ju, the founder of Nexon, passed away in February this year at the age of 54.
According to Forbes, Kim Jung-youn, the teenage daughter of Kim Jung-ju, became the world’s youngest billionaire by inheriting a stake in the game company Nexon.
According to early September filings, Jung-youn and her older sister, Jung-min, inherited a 30.78% stake each in Nexon, a company privately owned by their father.
Along with the number of shares held before the death of their father, sisters Kim Jung-youn and Kim Jung-min own about 2.5 billion USD. However, both will have to pay inheritance tax of up to $1.5 billion. Thus, the net worth of the two is about 1 billion USD.
Kim Jung-ju’s wife, Yoo Jung-hyun, was already a billionaire before her husband died. Ms. Yoo (53 years old) helped her husband establish Nexon in 1994. After inheriting an additional 4.57% of Nexon shares, she became the largest shareholder in the company with a total stake of 34%.
Ms. Yoo Jung-hyun also appeared in the list of the 50 richest people in Korea for the first time in 2022 with a net worth of 3 billion USD.
The family of the late billionaire Kim Jung-ju is quite tight-lipped. It is widely reported that Jung-min and Jung-youn were born in 2002 and 2004 respectively.
At the age of 18, Jung-youn is the youngest billionaire in the world. The last person to win this title is Kevin David Lehmann (20 years old) from Germany.
His father, Guenther Lehmann, transferred his stake in the pharmacy chain drogerie to his 14-year-old son. However, Kevin David Lehmann does not officially inherit the shares until his 18th birthday (ie in 2020).
When he was still alive, billionaire Jung-ju was famous for being shy in front of the media. He founded Nexon on Jeju – an island off the southern coast of Korea.
In 2006, he stopped managing Nexon to focus on philanthropic activities and other investments. Jung-ju was named one of Forbes Asia’s 15 Charity Heroes last year for donating to children’s hospitals.
Before his death, Jung-ju was ranked as the third-richest person in South Korea in 2021 with a net worth of $10.9 billion.
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