Two South Korean women in their early 20s were featured as one of the 25 youngest people on the Forbes’ World’s Billionaires list. The two women, 22-year-old Kim Jung-min and 20-year-old Kim Jung-youn are both daughters of Kim Jung-ju, the late founder of online gaming giant Nexon. The sisters’ net worth is each valued at $1.4 billion.
Forbes revealed its world’s youngest billionaires list last month. This year, the 25 youngest people on the list are all 33 or younger. Ms. Jung-min and Ms. Jung-youn are the fifth and third youngest on the list, respectively.
The sisters each own approximately 9% of Nexon, through NXC, the holding company of Nexon. The sisters and their mother, NXC director Yoo Jung-hyun, inherited a fortune of 10 trillion won from Kim upon his death in 2022. They reported paying 6 trillion won in inheritance taxes, corresponding to a 60% tax rate on their inheritance. As part of settling the inheritance tax in 2022, they transferred 29.3% of their stakes in NXC to the government.
“Neither she nor her sister has a role in the company,” reported Forbes. For the first time in 15 years, there are no self-made billionaires under the age of 30, according to Forbes.
Kim founded Nexon in 1994 with an initial capital of 60 million won. He launched several online games that went on to be a success, including “The Kingdom of the Winds”, “Kart Rider”, “Crazy Arcade” and “MapleStory”. Kim, who had been undergoing treatment for depression for some time, died in the United States in February 2022.
The youngest billionaire on the list is 19-year-old Livia Voigt, who owns a minority stake in Brazilian electrical equipment producer WEG.
