Insider stock ownership at South Korea's family-run conglomerates rose this year as more founding members and their families sought to tighten their grip on management, the antitrust regulator said Wednesday.

The insider stock ownership rate of 60 conglomerates having group owners reached 58 percent his year, up 1 percentage point from a year earlier, according to the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC).

Insider stock ownership refers to the stocks held by the founding members and his or her immediate family and top executives of companies affiliated with a business group. This includes stakes held by subsidiaries and related financial firms.

According to the regulator, 71 business groups with assets of 5 trillion won ($4.3 billion) or more are required to report details on their ownership structures this year.

The insider stock ownership rate rebounded this year after declining every year since 2018.

Group founding members and their family members control the entire business group via cobweb-like stock holdings in affiliates. This year, they held an average of 3.5 percent stake in business groups, the KFTC said.

As for top conglomerate Samsung Group, the insider stock ownership rate inched down 0.1 percentage point to 45.13 percent this year.

Automaking group Hyundai Motor Group saw the rate fall 0.64 percentage point to 52.62 percent.

But the corresponding rate of energy-to-telecom giant SK Group came to 60.41 percent this year, up 2.58 percentage points from the previous year. (Yonhap)