Three years ago, Suh Kyung-bae was the second-richest person in South Korea. Today he’s barely in the Top 10, in a stark reversal of a K-beauty boom known for minting billionaires, not breaking them.
Suh’s $3.6 billion fortune — down from roughly $8 billion in 2017 — is largely comprised of shares in his family’s cosmetics conglomerate, Amorepacific Group, which have fallen more than 40% from a mid-January high.
The parent of brands like Innisfree, Laniege and Sulwhasoo, Amorepacific was struggling even before COVID-19, and the pandemic has ushered in a slew of lifestyle changes that have made cosmetics less central to women’s daily routines.