
In today’s briefing:
- Fresh Low-PBR Policy Color Hitting the Local Tape Today
- Shinhan Financial Group Placement – Clean-Up Trade but Stock Is at All Time-Highs
- Kospi200: Where Implied Vol Stands After 33% Surge
- DH Shipbuilding IPO Preview
- Samyang Comtech IPO Valuation Analysis
- HBM Should Be as Attractive an Investment as Nvidia or TSMC but the Stocks Don’t Show That
- Kospi200: Elevated Returns, Historical Extremes and Optionality Opportunity

Fresh Low-PBR Policy Color Hitting the Local Tape Today
- The ruling party’s KOSPI 5,000 task force is now eyeing low PBR names with talk of direct penalties — a sharper shift from the prior admin’s soft-touch value-up approach.
- Low PBR penalties may bypass the Assembly, fast-tracked via KRX or enforcement rule tweaks — rollout could follow swiftly post commercial code passage, possibly within 2–3 months.
- Market’s zeroing in on low PBR, high ROE large caps — with 0.8x flagged as the penalty line, 56 KRW 1T+ names screen as potential re-rating plays.
Shinhan Financial Group Placement – Clean-Up Trade but Stock Is at All Time-Highs
- Affinity Equity Partners is looking to raise around US$425m via selling 1.9% of its stake in Shinhan Financial (055550 KS).
- Affinity had sold half of its stake earlier in 2024, when the company witnessed a number of selldowns in 1H24.
- In this note, we will talk about the deal dynamics and run the deal through our ECM framework.
Kospi200: Where Implied Vol Stands After 33% Surge
- Kospi200 posted a strong weekly gain, advancing every day and extending a powerful rally off the April lows.
- The percentage of positive trading days since early April reflects strong momentum.
- A divergence is emerging, with implied volatility no longer reacting to spot moves as before.
DH Shipbuilding IPO Preview
- DH Shipbuilding is getting ready to complete its IPO in KOSPI in August. DH Shipbuilding would be the second largest IPO in Korea after LG CNS so far this year.
- The IPO price range is 42,000 won to 50,000 won per share. At the high end of the IPO price range, it could raise as much as 500 billion won.
- The bankers used four companies including HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, Hanwha Ocean, Samsung Heavy Industries, and HD Hyundai Mipo as comps for DH Shipbuilding.
Samyang Comtech IPO Valuation Analysis
- Our comparable companies valuation analysis suggests implied market cap of 557 billion won or target price of 13,187 won per share.
- This represents a 71% upside from the high end of the IPO price range (7,700 won per share). Given the excellent upside, we have a Positive view of this IPO.
- One could argue that valuation discount on Samyang Comtech may be too conservative mainly due to higher sales growth, ROE, and operating margins of Samyang Comtech relative to the comps.
HBM Should Be as Attractive an Investment as Nvidia or TSMC but the Stocks Don’t Show That
- Nvidia, AMD launch a new GPU every 2 years. At each generation, higher performance manufacturing (TSMC) and HBM (higher density, higher speed, thinner layers). Hence, cost increase at each generation.
- Price and volumes are negotiated 1 year ahead. TSMC, SK Hynix expect AI / HBM revenues to double in 2025. Expect another 50-60% in 2026.
- Why HBM attracts less interest than Foundry (TSMC) or Design (AMD, AVGO, Nvidia)? Mostly, investor still think this is a cyclical business – HBM isn’t.
Kospi200: Elevated Returns, Historical Extremes and Optionality Opportunity
- We assess whether recent returns have been extreme and put yesterday’s sharp rally in context.
- The evolution of volatility following past extreme states is examined.
- Rationale for using optionality in this stretched price environment is outlined.