State or government account for 59% of Industrial Bank of Korea's (KRX:024110) ownership, while institutions account for 22%

Key Insights

• Industrial Bank of Korea's significant state or government ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
• 59% of the company is held by a single shareholder (Ministry of Economy and Finance)
• Institutional ownership in Industrial Bank of Korea is 22%

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Industrial Bank of Korea (KRX:024110), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are state or government with 59% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Meanwhile, institutions make up 22% of the company’s shareholders. Insiders often own a large chunk of younger, smaller, companies while huge companies tend to have institutions as shareholders.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Industrial Bank of Korea, beginning with the chart below.

View our latest analysis for Industrial Bank of Korea

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Industrial Bank of Korea?

Institutional investors commonly compare their own returns to the returns of a commonly followed index. So they generally do consider buying larger companies that are included in the relevant benchmark index.

Industrial Bank of Korea already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at Industrial Bank of Korea's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Industrial Bank of Korea is not owned by hedge funds. Ministry of Economy and Finance is currently the largest shareholder, with 59% of shares outstanding. With such a huge stake in the ownership, we infer that they have significant control of the future of the company. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 7.2% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 5.1% by the third-largest shareholder.

While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of Industrial Bank of Korea

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.

Our data cannot confirm that board members are holding shares personally. It is unusual not to have at least some personal holdings by board members, so our data might be flawed. A good next step would be to check how much the CEO is paid.

General Public Ownership

With a 19% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Industrial Bank of Korea. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Industrial Bank of Korea better, we need to consider many other factors. To that end, you should be aware of the 1 warning sign we've spotted with Industrial Bank of Korea .

But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter future.

NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.