Head of ESG Intelligence, Who's Good

Soo Young Kim

Head of ESG Intelligence

ASIA’S FIRST AI-DRIVEN ESG INSIGHT PROVIDER

Who's Good

Using AI technologies and public data, Who’s Good provides objective and up-to-date corporate ESG insights on Asian companies.

WHY WHO'S GOOD

* Time-sensitive: Time is the essence in finance. Artificial Intelligence (AI) can process vast amount of information in a short span of time. Our powerful algorithm offers real-time in-depth corporate ESG analysis with out compromising its quality.
* Objective: We turned to public big data and news big data as source to base our analysis on and to preserve impartiality. We leverage 350 public big data sources and 93 news data sources in Korea to uncover insights.
* Insightful: Who’s Good ESG analysis coverage extends to all listed and non-listed companies in Korea. This allows us to provide a comprehensive insight into the Korean market.
* Global approach to ESG: Our ESG research framework is built on international standards and principles including UN Global Compact, ISO 26000, ICGN and CFA Guidelines on Corporate Governance to meet the global standards.

<ul>
<li>JYP Entertainment (035900), one of the major entertainment companies in Korea, just released its very first ESG report in the industry</li>
<li>As climate change issues grow among fandom, likely to see growing risk for environmental issues. For social issues, anti-competitive practices and consumer issues became material</li>
<li>'Business Ethics' issues at YG Entertainment (122870) has pulled down its stock price in 2019, causing its main artist to disband</li>
</ul>


JYP Entertainment (035900), one of the major entertainment companies in Korea, just released its very first ESG report in the industry
As climate change issues grow among fandom, likely to see growing risk for environmental issues. For social issues, anti-competitive practices and consumer issues became material
'Business Ethics' issues at YG Entertainment (122870) has pulled down its stock price in 2019, causing its main artist to disband


K-Pop Industry Finally Starts to Pay Attention to ESG

Pan-Asia Catalysts/Events, Quiddity Advisors

David Blennerhassett

Pan-Asia Catalysts/Events

Quiddity Advisors

Event-Driven

<ul>
<li>
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/s-t-holdings-co-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:16022:1" rel="noopener">SNT Holdings (036530 KS)</a> has lifted its stake in <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/smec-co-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:1649:1" rel="noopener">SMEC (099440 KS)</a>, South Korea's second-largest machine tool manufacturer, to 13.65% from 8.19%. SNT's chairman also holds 6.55%, or 20.2% all-in.</li>
<li>Concurrent with the stake increase, SNT formally declared its equity holding in SMEC to  “management participation” from "simple investment". </li>
<li>The move could simply be one of SNT aligning its interests with SMEC's management. But more likely, it's a precursor to a potential hostile takeover. SMEC is now up ~40%.</li>
</ul>



SNT Holdings (036530 KS) has lifted its stake in SMEC (099440 KS), South Korea's second-largest machine tool manufacturer, to 13.65% from 8.19%. SNT's chairman also holds 6.55%, or 20.2% all-in.
Concurrent with the stake increase, SNT formally declared its equity holding in SMEC to  “management participation” from "simple investment". 
The move could simply be one of SNT aligning its interests with SMEC's management. But more likely, it's a precursor to a potential hostile takeover. SMEC is now up ~40%.


SMEC (099440 KS) Pops As SNT Shifts Its Intent

Korea/Asia, Events, IPOs, Douglas Research Advisory

Douglas Kim

Korea/Asia, Events, IPOs

Douglas Research Advisory

Equity Bottom-Up

<ul>
<li>In this insight, we provide the top 10 stock picks and key catalysts in the Korean stock market for the two weeks (15 to 29 August 2025).</li>
<li>Shipbuilding and rechargeable battery were two of the best performing sectors in the past two weeks.</li>
<li>Top 10 picks in this bi-weekly include Samsung Electronics, LG Uplus, Hyundai Elevator, KT&amp;G, KEPCO E&amp;C, Dentium, NCsoft, JYP Entertainment, LG Chem, and Ecopro BM. </li>
</ul>


In this insight, we provide the top 10 stock picks and key catalysts in the Korean stock market for the two weeks (15 to 29 August 2025).
Shipbuilding and rechargeable battery were two of the best performing sectors in the past two weeks.
Top 10 picks in this bi-weekly include Samsung Electronics, LG Uplus, Hyundai Elevator, KT&amp;G, KEPCO E&amp;C, Dentium, NCsoft, JYP Entertainment, LG Chem, and Ecopro BM. 


Top 10 Korean Stock Picks and Key Catalysts Bi-Weekly (15 to 29 August 2025)

Technical Analyst, Vermilion Research

Joe Jasper

Technical Analyst

Technical and Quantitative Research

Vermilion Research

Vermilion’s objective is to deliver timely, actionable, and unique technical research to professional investors through the application of our various technical indicators.

Our research strategists seek to highlight securities which we believe are at major inflection points, based on our various technical and quantitative indicators, and offer asymmetric risk/return profiles. Our unique research methodology, centered on relative strength, enables our strategists to deliver superior investment recommendations.

Our process begins by organizing the universe of actively traded stocks into discrete sectors, then into industry groups. We then apply our technical and quantitative tools to identify developing price trends. Once attractive trends are identified within a selected sector or group, we screen for individual stocks which we believe offer the best risk/reward profile. We provide a historical perspective that often reveals, through our long-term charts, how price patterns often repeat themselves over time.

Technical Analysis

Foxconn Industrial Internet / Technical Analysis

<ul>
<li>We remain near-term bullish SPX and ACWI since 4/22/25, and our intermediate-term outlook remains bullish as well (as of our 5/14/25 Compass), with Int’l Compass reports all echoing this sentiment.</li>
<li>We discussed in our July 31, 2025 Int'l Compass how $128, $125-$126, and $123-$123.50 were short-term supports to watch on ACWI-US, and ACWI-US found support at $128 the next day.</li>
<li>Europe (EURO STOXX 50) is the last of the major countries (from a global market cap perspective) to break out; we expect it to be next</li>
</ul>


We remain near-term bullish SPX and ACWI since 4/22/25, and our intermediate-term outlook remains bullish as well (as of our 5/14/25 Compass), with Int’l Compass reports all echoing this sentiment.
We discussed in our July 31, 2025 Int'l Compass how $128, $125-$126, and $123-$123.50 were short-term supports to watch on ACWI-US, and ACWI-US found support at $128 the next day.
Europe (EURO STOXX 50) is the last of the major countries (from a global market cap perspective) to break out; we expect it to be next


Europe Next to Break Out?; Bullish Outlook Intact; Remain Overweight Korea, Greece, and the U.S.

<ul>
<li>JYP Entertainment reported an explosive growth in sales and profits in 2Q 2025. It achieved sales of 215.8 billion won (up 125.5% YoY and 6.4% higher than consensus).</li>
<li>JYP also had an operating profit of 52.9 billion won (up 466.5% YoY and 23.3% higher than consensus in 2Q 2025.</li>
<li> JYP's much better than expected results in 2Q 2025 confirms its ability to monetize the growing popularity of K-Pop globally.  </li>
</ul>


JYP Entertainment reported an explosive growth in sales and profits in 2Q 2025. It achieved sales of 215.8 billion won (up 125.5% YoY and 6.4% higher than consensus).
JYP also had an operating profit of 52.9 billion won (up 466.5% YoY and 23.3% higher than consensus in 2Q 2025.
 JYP's much better than expected results in 2Q 2025 confirms its ability to monetize the growing popularity of K-Pop globally.  


JYP Entertainment: Explosive Earnings Growth in 2Q 2025

South Korea

S.M.Entertainment Co. plans, produces, promotes, and markets Korean rock and roll music in several formats, such as compact discs (CD), concert tours, television productions, and music videos.  The Company also operates artist management business as well as licensing and copyright business from the company's music records.

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S.M.Entertainment Co (041510 KS)

K-Pop Industry Finally Starts to Pay Attention to ESG

This insight explains how K-pop industry behaves from the ESG perspective and defines the types of ESG issues in the industry, based on news text...

Soo Young Kim

SMEC (099440 KS) Pops As SNT Shifts Its Intent

I wouldn't chase it here. SMEC is trading rich to a key listed peer; and to precedent takeover metrics. Look to enter on any material weakness. ...

David Blennerhassett

Top 10 Korean Stock Picks and Key Catalysts Bi-Weekly (15 to 29 August 2025)

Top 10 picks in this bi-weekly include Samsung Electronics, LG Uplus, Hyundai Elevator, KT&G, KEPCO E&C, Dentium, NCsoft, JYP Entertainment, LG...

Douglas Kim

Europe Next to Break Out?; Bullish Outlook Intact; Remain Overweight Korea, Greece, and the U.S.

Europe Next to Break Out?; China and Japan Remain Attractive and a big focus since our July 3rd report titled "China and Japan Breaking Out;"...

Vermilion Research

JYP Entertainment: Explosive Earnings Growth in 2Q 2025

JYP Entertainment reported an explosive growth in sales and profits in 2Q 2025. It achieved sales of 215.8 billion won (up 125.5% YoY and 6.4%...

Douglas Kim

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