Story is far from over, yet steady buildup of shares, visibility pushes younger daughter to the fore Suh Min-jeong (left), the eldest daughter of Amorepacific Chairman Suh Kyung-bae, and her younger sister, Suh Ho-jeong (Park Ji-young/The Korea Herald) Few names have done more to globalize Korean beauty than Amorepacific.Even as a new generation of K-beauty brands nips at its heels, Chairman Suh Kyung-bae made clear he was not sitting on his laurels at the company's 80th anniversary event last year, doubling down on what he calls "new beauty.""As creators of beauty, we aim to present a distinctive vision of beauty to the world, one that arises from the harmony of body and mind, and transcends age and time," he said, throwing in a target of 15 trillion won ($10 billion) in annual revenue by 2035, more than triple the company’s 2025 sales of 4.6 trillion won.Yet underneath that drive sits a dilemma over who will lead Amorepacific into its next chapter. For much of its history, the eldest daughter appeared to be the natural heir apparent. That no longer seems assured.The one who steps backBorn in 1991, Suh Min-jeong, followed the well-worn path of next-generation heirs as the chairman’s eldest daughter: early share transfers, years spent studying abroad and a gradual rise through the company’s ranks.As a teenager, she received her first shares from her father in 2006, later folding them into the holding company in exchange for preferred stock that converted into common shares a decade later. By 2016, she had become the second-largest shareholder in Amorepacific Holdings, with a 2.71 percent stake, behind only the chairman himself.A Cornell graduate, she cut her teeth at Bain & Company before joining the family company in 2017 as a production management employee at its beauty manufacturing facility. She left six months later to complete a master of business administration at China's Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, returning to Amorepacific in 2019 as a manager in the beauty sales strategy team.The following year, she married Hong Jeong-hwan, eldest son of the chairman of Bokwang Investment. The marriage lasted less than a year, and with it, her grip on the succession narrative appeared to loosen.In 2021, Chairman Suh clawed back 100,000 holding company shares previously gifted to his former son-in-law, while the daughter's stakes in affiliates including Etude and Espoir were wiped out during capital reduction processes. Then in 2023, she handed back roughly half her stake in Innisfree and stepped away from her post, beginning a leave of absence that has dragged on without resolution.The succession narrative was further clouded by unverified reports of a second marriage in 2023, never publicly disclosed, which some officials believe strained the relationship between father and daughter.Others urged caution, however. "While Min-jeong is on leave for personal reasons, it would be difficult to say she has completely exited the succession race. Given that Chairman Suh is still actively managing the company, it is too early to conclude that the younger daughter will take over.”The one who moves forwardAs the elder sister receded from view, the younger one gradually came into focus.Suh Ho-jeong, born in 1995, took a more incremental path, entering the group through Osulloc, its tea subsidiary founded in 1979 and still closely tied to the group’s identity and evolving vision of beauty and wellness.A Cornell graduate in hotel administration, she joined Osulloc's product development team at the entry level in 2018, with no prior formal work experience.“She is gaining hands-on experience as an ordinary new employee would,” a company official said of the younger daughter.To industry observers, her placement there appeared less peripheral than strategic.Accounting for just over 2 percent of group revenue, the tea business has nonetheless become one of the faster-growing parts of the group, posting double-digit growth last year and crossing 110 billion won in annual sales. International momentum is building too, with the brand making inroads on Amazon in the United States.Some see a more nuanced possibility in that the family may ultimately divide responsibilities along business lines, with core cosmetics remaining under Suh Min-jeong's domain while newer non-beauty ventures are steered by the younger daughter."Amorepacific is pushing into tea, health supplements and dental care alongside its core cosmetics business," one industry source noted. "Scaling and eventually dividing those units between the two daughters is one scenario that cannot be ruled out.”Inheritance not yet in motionIn February, the chairman transferred 190,000 common shares in Amorepacific, worth roughly 30 billion won, to his younger daughter.While the company described the transfer as a practical step to help her pay gift taxes on shares previously transferred by her father, some industry observers saw it as a preliminary move to narrow the ownership gap between the two sisters.She has so far raised roughly 10.1 billion won through share sales to settle those taxes.Much of the younger Suh’s stake consists of preferred shares scheduled to convert into common stock in 2029, including 1.73 million convertible preferred shares she received from her father in 2023.Once converted, the ownership gap between the sisters is expected to narrow to a great extent, with the elder sister holding a combined stake of 2.84 percent compared with 2.28 percent for the younger. Even then, the chairman would retain control of more than 50 percent of the holding company, leaving the final shape of succession firmly in his hands.With succession unresolved and options left open, some industry officials said it was more reasonable to view this as a period in which both daughters are being given time and managerial training.Others noted that the absence of a clearly established succession structure may make it difficult to keep up with a fast-moving market.Amorepacific maintained that "nothing has been definitively decided.”Succession Watch profiles the next generation of leaders shaping Korea's key industries — from chaebol heirs to self-made entrepreneurs — spotlighting the new forces driving the nation's growth. — Ed.