최근 대규모기업집단 계열사 수의 증가와 사업 확장이 사회적 이슈가 되면서 대규모기업집단 규제에 대해 전반적으로 논의가 되고 있다. 본 논문에서는 대규모기업집단 규제 제도 중에 출자총액제한제도가 대규모기업집단의 계열사 수 증가에 영향을 미치는 지 살펴보고 그 동안 계열사 수 증가의 원인이 무엇이었는지 파악하였다. 분석결과, 대규모기업집단의 계열사는 분석기간인 2001년부터 2012년까지 출자총액제한제도 시행유무와는 관계없이 지속적으로 증가하는 추세에 있었다. 연도별로 살펴볼 때 2001년부터 2008년까지 출자총액제한제도가 시행되었으며 2009년부터 2012년까지 폐지되었기에 계열사 수를 비교하자면 폐지기간에 더 많았으나 이는 전반적으로 증가추세에 있는 전후를 비교하였기에 출자총액제한제도의 시행 유무에 따른 영향으로 볼 수 없었다. 각 기업집단 별 계열사 수 증가 원인을 살펴 본 결과, 계열사 수가 증가하는 가장 큰 원인은 새로운 업종의 진출보다는 기존의 존재하고 있던 기업(집단)을 인수할 때 계열사들이 같이 인수되면서 증가하는 경우로 나타났다. 예를 들어 현대자동차의 현대건설, SK의 하이닉스 인수, 금호아시아나의 대우건설 인수 등은 자산규모 상위인 기업집단의 계열회사 수를 크게 증가시킴으로써 계열사 확장이 발생한 것이다. 출자총액제도 부활의 실효성을 보고자 자산규모 상위 3대 그룹을 분석한 결과, 출자총액제한제도가 부활되더라도 삼성의 경우는 출자여력이 충분하며, SK의 경우는 지주회사체제로 전환되어 출자총액제한 제외기업이라 그 효과가 미비하고, 현대자동차의 경우 영향을 받으나 이 역시 출자여력이 남은 계열사를 통한 출자는 가능한 것으로 나타났다. 각 기업집단별로 계열사가 증가하는 이유는 다르나 단순히 출자총액제한이라는 획일적인 사전적 제도로 규제하는 것은 그 부작용이 있을 수 있으며 계열사 수 증가를 억제하는 데는 효과가 미비할 수 있다. 뿐만 아니라 출자총액제한제도가 도입되더라도 적용되는 기업집단이 한정되어 있어 그 실효성에 대해서는 다시 한번 생각해볼 필요가 있다.
As increase of the number of Korean business group’s affiliate companies and the business expansion have been a social issue, regulations to the business groups have been in a comprehensive discussion. In this paper, if the ceiling on total equity investment system among the regulation systems to the business group has an effect on increase of the Korean business group’s affiliate company numbers has been examined and what the cause of increase of the affiliate company numbers so far has been figured out. With the result of analysis, there was a tendency that the affiliate companies of the business group had been continuously increased, regardless of implementation of the ceiling on total equity investment system during the analysis period, from 2001 to 2012. Seen that for each year, the ceiling-on total equity investment system had been implemented from 2001 to 2008 and abolished from 2009 to 2012. Compared to the number of affiliate companies, the number had been much more during the abolished period, but this cannot be seen as the effect according to implementation of the ceiling on total equity investment system because before/after comprehensively increasing tendency have been compared.
In order to examine whether there is any difference in change of affiliate company number between the enforcement period and abolition period of the Ceiling on Total Equity Investment System, I performed a univariate analysis. As a result, the difference in affiliate company number turned out to be significant between both periods. If the Ceiling on Total Equity Investment System has an effect of suppressing the expansion of affiliate companies, it should affect their rate of increase. Therefore, I performed an analysis on this and found that the difference between the increase/decrease rates of the affiliate company number was not significant. That is, it turned out that the Ceiling on Total Equity Investment System does not affect the increase rate of the affiliate company number having insignificant effect of suppressing the expansion of the affiliate company. Upon analyzing the enforcement period and abolition period of the Ceiling on Total Equity Investment System, the change by the period is applied, and so I performed analysis only in the enforcement period to examine the effect of the system. That is, I tried to examine how the effect is revealed during the enforcement period of the Ceiling on Total Equity Investment System by comparing the applied corporation groups and non-applied corporation groups of the system. From the difference between two groups’ increasing rates in affiliate company number, the average value of affiliate company number’s annual increasing rate is higher in the corporation group with the system applied. However, the gap is insignificant and so the application of this system does not affect the increase of affiliate company number.
With the result of the analysis, it has been shown that the biggest cause of increase in the affiliate company’s number is a case of increase as the affiliate companies has been taken over together when the previously existing business group was taken over, rather than advancing into the new business. For example, due to Hyundai Construction taken over by Hyundai Motor Company, Hynix taken over by SK, and Daewoo Construction taken over by Kumho Asiana Group, the number of affiliate companies of the business group with higher rank in the asset size has been substantially increased, which has resulted in expansion of the affiliate companies.
With the result of analyzing 3 major groups with the highest asset size, even is the ceiling on total equity investment system is reinstated, it has been shown that for Samsung, it has a sufficient equity investment power to space, and for SK, the effect is quite little as it was switched over to the holding company system and excluded from the ceiling on total equity investment system. Although Hyundai Motor Company can be influenced, it was also shown as available for the equity investment through the affiliate companies with an equity investment power to spare.
Although the reasons why the affiliate companies is increased for each business group has been different, any side effect can be incurred from the uniform dictionary system, simply called as the ceiling on total equity investment system, and the effect on restraining the increase of the affiliate companies’ number can be disappointedly little. In addition, although the ceiling on total equity investment system is introduced, it is necessary to reconsider the effectiveness once again due to limitation of the business group to be applied.
This study is meaningful that it analyzes the effect of the Ceiling on Total Equity Investment System on the affiliate company number increase for the first time; however, it has a limit at the same time that it could not establish an elaborate model for the actual proof analysis. Therefore, if an elaborate analysis model can be developed in the future study to analyze the effect of this system more accurately, the effect on the affiliate company number increase can be understood the more in detail.
