Phoenix Technological News, Beijing Time, Dec. 28, South Korea's anti-monopoly agency said on Friday that large Korean companies, including Samsung Group, had cut off cross-shareholding links and improved transparency in corporate governance. The cross-shareholding structure of Korean companies is often accused of consolidating the control of the company by the founders and their descendants.

The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) announced today that 15 of the 60 large Korean enterprises have made voluntary efforts to either improve ownership structure or corporate governance or ease cross-shareholding. These 15 companies include Samsung, LG, Hyundai, SK, Lotte, etc. Samsung is the largest company in Korea.

According to FTC, Samsung eliminated the remaining seven cross-shareholding links this year, thus completely solving the cross-shareholding structure problem. In April, Samsung SDI sold its stake in Samsung Property, removing three cross-shareholding links. In September, Samsung Motor sold its stake in Samsung Property, removing the remaining four cross-shareholding links.

In addition, FTC also takes a positive view of the measures Samsung has taken to improve its corporate governance. In March this year, Samsung Electronics and Samsung Property set up a committee to recommend outside directors, including all outside directors of the company. The aim is to strengthen the independence and power of outside directors.

The two companies also decided to separate the chairman and CEO positions in order to restrict each other and make the power structure more balanced.