By YOOJUNG LEE | Bloomberg | Published: December 28, 2020
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Three years ago, Suh Kyung-Bae was the second richest person in South Korea. Today he's barely Top 10, a stark reversal in 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.