Samsung Electronics' stock has not enriched executives much: It has fallen by 45% in dollar terms (35% in won) in the past 12 months, declining in step with the Korean Composite Index (see The Koreadiscount).
In July it bought four discount superstores and six undeveloped sites from a local businessman in South Korea, which at the moment is about as unpromising a market for foreign retailers as it is possible to imagine.