SK Group became South Korea's No. 2 conglomerate in 2021 for the first time in 16 years, overtaking automaking behemoth Hyundai Motor Group, a corporate tracker said Wednesday.

SK, whose flagship is chip giant SK hynix Inc., had assets worth 270.7 trillion won ($226 billion) as of end-September last year, up 13 percent from a year earlier, according to CEO Score.

The amount was the second largest among the country's 71 conglomerates with assets of 5 trillion won or more, which was designated and monitored by the Fair Trade Commission, the country's antitrust watchdog.

Hyundai Motor Group, which had remained the second-largest conglomerate since 2006, placed third with some 250 trillion won, which was up 1.6 percent from a year earlier.

Hyundai Motor's key companies are South Korea's two largest automakers -- Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Corp.

Samsung Group, which has global tech titan Samsung Electronics Co. under its wing, was by far the largest conglomerate with assets of 467.9 trillion won, which was up 2.3 percent from a year earlier.

LG and Lotte groups came in fourth and fifth with assets of around 154 trillion won and 122.9 trillion won, respectively.

By company, SK hynix posted the largest on-year increase of 11.3 trillion won as its assets jumped 17.7 percent from a year earlier to 75.4 trillion won.

Samsung Electronics came next with a gain of around 11 trillion won, or 4.8 percent. SK hynix and Samsung Electronics were the only firms that saw an increase of more than 10 trillion won over the cited period.

Meanwhile, those 71 conglomerates had total assets of 2,494.9 trillion won as of end-September, up 6.8 percent from a year earlier, according to CEO Score. (Yonhap)