이 기사는 2021년 05월 03일 07시42분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

South Korean internet giant Naver has become subject to cross-shareholding restrictions, two years after its smaller rival Kakao put its name on the watch list.

Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) announced on Thursday a renewed list of 40 large companies with assets worth 10 trillion won ($9 billion) or more. They and their affiliates will become subject to cross-shareholding restrictions effective May 1.

Seven new companies, including Naver, have been added in the list. Naver’s assets amounted to 13.58 trillion won according to a calculation by the fair trade watchdog, up by more than 4 trillion won from 9.49 trillion won a year earlier.

Naver’s inclusion in the list comes two years after its smaller rival Kakao became subject to the same regulations for the first time among companies in the internet sector.

The reversed order of inclusion is because of the KTFC’s way of calculating assets of conglomerates. The regulator estimates a conglomerate’s total assets by simply combining assets on its separate financial statements with the sum of assets of its affiliates at home.

This means the total assets of a conglomerate with more affiliates is likely to be inflated. Kakao has 118 domestic affiliates, more than double Naver’s 45 affiliates.

When Kakao was included in the list in 2019, the KFTC estimated the combined assets of Kakao and its affiliates at 10.6 trillion won. The number of the firm’s affiliates at the time stood at more than 70 as Kakao stepped up efforts to expand through mergers and acquisitions.

Naver’s focus on overseas markets has also helped delay its inclusion in the watch list. The KFTC does not consider a conglomerate’s overseas units when it calculates total assets. Naver has 100 affiliates abroad as of the end of 2020, versus Kakao with 33 overseas units.

With the two companies adopting different growth strategies, Kakao’s total assets from the KFTC’s view has grown much faster than those of Naver. Kakao’s assets rose by 5.7 trillion won in the past year, while Naver’s assets increased by 4.1 trillion won in the same period.

In contrast, according to consolidated financial statements, Naver’s assets stood at about 17 trillion won at the end of last year, versus Kakao with 12 trillion won of assets. Naver posted consolidated revenue of 5.3 trillion won, compared to Kakao which reported 4.16 trillion won in consolidated revenue. (Reporting by Hana Suh)