A Park will be back in South Korea's presidential mansion come February, and the big businesses, or chaebol, that dominate the country's economy will be breathing a sigh of relief that her left-wing challenger did not win Wednesday's presidential vote.
Victory for Park Geun-hye, the 60-year old daughter of South Korea's former military ruler, in the election means the top chaebol - five of whom control assets worth 57 percent of gross domestic product in the world's 14th largest economy - can get back to the business of making money.
Park's left-wing challenger had threatened to end the complex web of shareholdings that enable families to control sprawling conglomerates like Samsung and Hyundai Motor Co.
The election came at a sensitive time for Samsung and Hyundai as both are in the process of passing power to a third generation of their family owners, a process that left-wing candidate Moon Jae-in could have complicated with an attack on their shareholdings, had he won.
"She doesn't have any plans to alter the structures of the chaebol ownership and their concentration of economic power," said Kim Sang-jo, an economist at Hansung University and executive director of a group urging reform of South Korea's economy.
Korea's benchmark index rallied on Thursday after Park's win adding 0.32 percentage points, in part on relief that Moon lost.
"The election results have eased policy uncertainty, and raised hopes of economic stimulus," said Cho Young-hyun, an analyst at Hana Daetoo Securities.
Chaebol And Park
Park's father, Park Chung-hee, is the person responsible for building the chaebol during the 1960s and 1970s.
With a mix of threats and inducements for the top chaebol bosses, the founders of Samsung and Hyundai emerged from the ruins of the 1950-53 Korean War to help build a modern industrial state that has been dubbed "The Miracle on the Han".