▲ Nexon founder Kim Jeong-ju, NXC director
The second daughter of the late Nexon founder Kim Jung-ju, NXC director, who passed away in February, became the world's youngest billionaire by inheritance of shares, Forbes, an American economic magazine, reported on the 21st (local time).
Citing public data, Forbes reported that founder Kim's second daughter and two-year-old sister, who were born in 2004, inherited a 30.78% stake in NXC, each worth $2.5 billion (about 3.2 trillion won).
Forbes said that Korea has the world's highest inheritance tax, and estimated the sisters' inheritance tax to be more than $1.5 billion each.
After excluding inheritance tax, the two sisters' net worth was estimated at $1 billion each.
According to Forbes, her 18-year-old daughter is now the youngest billionaire in the world.
The former youngest billionaire is Kevin David Lehmann, a German young man who turned 20 this month, who inherited a stake in the German pharmacy and cosmetics chain DM from his father, Günter Lehmann, when he was 14.
Forbes introduced that founder Kim Jeong-ju had a tendency to avoid exposure to the media during his lifetime, and not much is known about his family.
Just before his death, he became the third richest person in Korea after Celltrion's honorary chairman Seo Jeong-joo and Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong.
Meanwhile, the spouse of founder Kim, who had a 29.43% stake in NXC prior to inheritance, inherited 132,890 shares and held a 34.00% stake in NXC, rising to the position of the largest shareholder of NXC and head of Nexon.
(Photo = Yonhap News)