SEOUL, KOREA - A study said the number of "middling" enterprises as of the end of last year was 3,436 including 931 affiliate companies.

 

The Small and Medium Business Administration announced on December 18 that the number of those companies that do not yet belong to a group of large corporations but have already graduated from the status of small- and medium-sized companies has increased 25.3 percent to 3,436 this year from 2,743 in 2012.

 

By industrial sector, three segments including primary metals and processing (159 companies), automotive (152), electronic parts and components (140) accounted for almost 40 percent. In non-manufacturing sectors, wholesale and retail (411), publishing, communications, and information services (150), real estate and rental (146) took more than a half.

 

The aggregate sales revenue of the middling companies was 560 trillion won, up 50.1 percent from the previous year's 373 trillion won. The number of employed hired by these corporations was 996,000, 20.9 percent higher than last year's 824,000. The percentage of workers employed by the middling companies was 8.8 percent in total, up 1.2 percentage points from last year.