Kyobo Life

In 1958, in a South Korea recovering from war, Shin Yong-ho founded Daehan Kyoyuk Insurance, which would later become Kyobo Life. His mission was twofold: to build national capital and promote the nation's education. Believing education was the key to the country's future, he created the world's first education insurance policy, an innovative product designed to help families save for their children's tuition. This initiative proved successful, helping millions of students fund their education over the next few decades and establishing the company as a major force in the Korean insurance market. The company's focus on national development didn't stop with insurance. In the 1980s, Shin Yong-ho established the Kyobo Book Centre, which grew into the nation's largest bookstore chain, cementing the company's dual identity in finance and culture. After the founder's passing in 2003, his son, Shin Chang-jae, took over as Chairman and CEO, guiding the company through financial crises by shifting focus from pure sales to long-term sustainability and customer-centric, ethical management. A pivotal moment arrived in 2012, when a consortium of private equity firms invested over a trillion won with the expectation of an IPO by 2015. When the public offering did not materialize, a years-long dispute over the investors' right to sell their stake back to the chairman began. This conflict stalled major strategic moves, including the IPO itself, for years. Finally, in early 2025, the dispute was resolved as the investors sold their stakes, clearing the path for Kyobo to pursue its long-term goals of establishing a financial holding company and potentially an IPO.