[Start Economy] Chairman Lee Jae-yong is one of the 100 'influential entrepreneurs' in Pocheon...the only one in the country

■ Host: Anchor Lee Jung-seop, Anchor Cho Ye-jin
■ Starring: Professor Heo Jun-young, Sogang University's Department of Economics

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information. Please specify [YTN News START] when quoting.

[Anchor]
We give you the latest economic news quickly and kindly. Start Economy, today with Professor Heo Joon-young of Sogang University's Department of Economics. Welcome, professor. Pocheon announced the 100 most influential entrepreneurs, but Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong is the only one in Korea to be included in this?

[Heo Joon-young]
It's ranked 85th. The way to evaluate this is not just looking at management performance in the short term, but in the medium term, for example, Samsung Electronics' stock price has fallen this year, and according to the evaluation here, it has doubled since 2017. We're evaluating how healthy the business is doing, social influence, and things like that. So, as you said, it was ranked 85th among Korean businessmen.

[Anchor]
On what basis do you think Chairman Lee Jae-yong was selected?

[Heo Joon-young]
I think Samsung is the most representative company in Korea in terms of market capitalization and various criteria. What we evaluated here is Korea's richest man, and he has been educated for a long time to succeed his father's predecessor in a company founded by his grandfather, and has served as a practical leader of the group since 2014. In the meantime, Samsung Electronics' stock price has been sluggish recently, and concerns continue to arise about Samsung Electronics.Anyway, Ma is a company that has grown a lot. I think I bought that aspect highly.

[Anchor]
Chairman Lee Jae-yong ranked 85th and I wonder what the rest of the figures are.

[Heo Joon-young]
Most of the CEOs of big tech companies in the United States ranked at the top. No. 1 is Tesla CEO Elon Musk. In the second place, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Apple CEO in the sixth place, and CEOs of U.S. M7 companies and these companies were at the top. Asia is fun. We talked about this a while ago, and Chairman Lee Jae-yong said he went to the wedding of his son's son in India. He is India's richest man named Mukesh Ambani, and he ranked 12th, the best in Asia.

[Anchor]
After all, if you look at CEOs, the companies they manage are very technologically advanced companies. In the case of Samsung Electronics, as mentioned earlier, it is a company with very excellent technology, but there are rumors of a very crisis right now. Chairman Lee Jae-yong personally also thinks that these parts will have an adverse impact due to judicial risks.

[Heo Joon-young]
There is a judicial risk, and yesterday was the final hearing date, and the hearing will be held on February 3rd next year. There are rumors that there was market manipulation regarding the merger of Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T, and that this was done to illegally succeed. I heard an interesting story. Not long ago, while we were talking here, Chairman Chey Tae-won said at the Knowledge Forum that SK has recently had a good stock price of Hynix and a lot of operating profit, so what he said was that Samsung seems to be doing a bad job temporarily, but it's a company with power. Actually, it's been talked about a lot within SK companies. I think he meant it. And rather, what SK said about what they're good at recently is that it's also fun for me. We caught a rat while the cow was walking backwards, so let's not settle for this and continue to do our best. Samsung, don't be too conscious. If I think about it the other way around, I wonder what it is. So, there are continuous doubts about the power of the group called Samsung, the part where Samsung Electronics is temporarily undervalued, and the management. There are questions about the next direction, but I think there are quite a few people who see that Samsung will eventually solve these things based on its various know-how.

[Anchor]
We will see how Chairman Lee Jae-yong will break through the judicial risk he has. If you move on to the next topic, you can feel the year-end atmosphere even if you go on the side of the road. At the end of the year, luxury hotels often present Christmas cakes, but this year, a cake worth 400,000 won was immediately available. Will you eat this because it's a waste? It's 400,000 won.

[Heo Joon-young]
It was the same cake last year, but it was upgraded this year, so it was made at a hotel. It was 300,000 won last year. But as it became 400,000 won, the appearance changed a little more. After that, raw material prices also rose a lot. That's why it became 400,000 won, reflecting various things. In fact, it's not only available at Shilla Hotel, but other hotels are also trying to release it a lot, so I think you can think of this overall. It's called a little recession these days, and it's been said that the recession has been going on for several years, but then isn't consumption still doing high-end consumption and premium consumption like this? I don't think a recession will eliminate the desire for consumption. I think there's a polarization of consumption. And the consumption of buying items that you cherish and feel when you really want to feel good. I think it's part of those consumption.

[Anchor]
As you saw on the screen, the 400,000 won cake from Shilla Hotel is called Taste of Luxury. I'm curious about the taste of luxury, but I don't think I can eat it. Let's take a look at the next news. I'm very interested in real estate these days and I'm very interested in auctions, but one of the anecdotes now is that you failed by writing more zeros on the bidding table?

[Heo Joon-young]
It happened at an apartment in New Town, Eunpyeong-gu. When we do an auction, we usually go to the court and write an auction price. This apartment was originally priced at 800 million won and was once auctioned off. But once you're attracted, it drops to 80% of the appraised value. So the next lowest bid was 640, and I was trying to spend 670 million won, but I added three more zeros, so I don't think you were nervous or intended. So, I bid an apartment worth 640 million won for 670 billion won, and this was sold. The problem is that the auction cannot be canceled if it is sold. So even if you give up on this, the 10% cost of participating in the first auction is about 64 million won. This is an unfortunate situation where we cannot get it back.

[Anchor]
The auction system is handwritten, and as you said, auction beginners can make a lot of mistakes in writing down the bid price incorrectly, so I should be responsible even if it's a mistake, right?

[Heo Joon-young]
As I said earlier, I make a bid deposit at the lowest bid price, and that's 10% of the auction price. So you probably paid 64 million won and went into the auction. Then, if you receive the successful bid, you will pay the remaining amount here. However, even if you give up the auction, you can't get back the 10% you paid. That's why you lost 64 million won. This happened in Dongtan and other places before. So I think mistakes are being made like this, such as spending 300 million won apartments for 300 million won, but as I said earlier, it seems that you are nervous about various things because this is being done in the court. So one of the things experts say is why don't you write a bid price at home, but I think this is happening because you go and write a bid price after looking at the situation.

[Anchor]
In the end, if I can't get 10% back and the rest of the parts, the cancellation is automatically canceled, right?

[Heo Joon-young]
That's right.

[Anchor]
I see. Let's take a look at the New York Stock Exchange. First of all, the news that a Wall Street-born treasury secretary was nominated for the second Trump administration increased a lot to close.

[Heo Joon-young]
It's important that this is the Treasury Secretary from Wall Street, but I think he's almost the only one who speaks to the Trump administration according to The Economist. What's that? What Trump's policy is that he will raise tariffs, but he is lukewarm about tariffs, and he thinks tariffs should be used as a bargaining chip. The Trump administration says that tax cuts and tariffs will increase the U.S. fiscal deficit a lot, but if you do that, you have to pay attention to reducing the fiscal deficit, which could spark a little bit of a fire in us. As one of the ways to reduce the fiscal deficit, Korean companies receive a lot of IRA subsidies. They're saying that we need to reduce these things. However, anyway, the market seems to have a position that this person is a little right-minded at a time when there are a lot of concerns about US government debt. In that respect, how to interpret it is better is that the rest of the news came out on the top, but hard-liners in the Trump administration are being selected, and almost the only one that the mayor will welcome and the mayor will understand. I think the market is very cheering here.

[Anchor]
Since the market is cheering like this, there is Santa Rally at the end of the year, and the Trump rally is continuing, so can it be another driving force?

[Heo Joon-young]
In my opinion, since there are a lot of roles as finance ministers, and overall, they manage the financial sector and regulate the financial sector, one of the things President-elect Trump is going to do is regulate the financial sector in the United States. Then there's the possibility that he's going to take a very strong drive in those as well, because he's from Wall Street and he's doing it himself. So in that respect, I think he is a person who will be very happy and helpful in the market.

[Anchor]
I see. We've even looked at the New York Stock Exchange. So far, I was with Professor Heo Jun-young of Sogang University's Department of Economics. Thank you very much.