(MENAFN- Qatar News Agency) oul April 20 - The retained earnings rate of South Korea's top 10 conglomerates reached record high levels in 2013 despite their pledges to increase investments and hiring a report showed Sunday. The internal cash reserves of the 70 listed companies belonging to the largest business groups whose fiscal year ended in December stood at 1578.5 percent the report by FN Guide said. The figure marks a 164.3 percentage point gain from a retention rate of 1414.2 percent tallied for the year before. The recent numbers represent a surge compared with retention rates hovering in the low 900 percent range reported in 2008. The retention rate refers to a firm's surplus fund divided by capital and is used as an indicator of how much earnings a firm opts to hold in reserve. A higher retention rate is a mark of a healthy corporate financial status but it also means companies are sitting on big cash reserves without spending them on new investments that can lead to hiring. FN Guide said based on assessment of annual reports submitted to the Korea Exchange and the Financial Supervisory Service big companies held 444.2 trillion won (US$427.7 billion) in cash up 11.3 percent from 399.2 trillion won last year. The researcher said among the groups checked Lotte had the highest retention rate of 5767 percent followed by 3937 percent for steelmaker POSCO and 3321 percent by Samsung. Hyundai Heavy Industries and Hyundai Motor Group also made the top five with their retention numbers hitting 3092 percent and 1661 percent respectively.
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