Daily Brief South Korea: SK Square , Kakaopay , Samsung Electronics and more

In today’s briefing:

Holdco NAV Discount Compression Play on Korea’s Next Policy Narrative: Mandatory Tender Offers
Alipay: Issuing EB Worth 627 Billion Won Backed By Its Shares in Kakao Pay [A Quasi Block Deal Sale]
Alpha Generation Through Share Buybacks in Korea: Bi-Monthly (July and August 2025)

Holdco NAV Discount Compression Play on Korea’s Next Policy Narrative: Mandatory Tender Offers

Korean equities are stalled; macro catalysts are absent. Street focus shifts from treasury share cancellations to next year’s mandatory tender offers, now seen as the top policy driver.
Pre-MTO trades focus on holding companies with wide NAV discounts or low controlling stakes, front-running policy-driven re-ratings before minority shareholders capture control premiums.
Focus on 32 Korean holding companies >KRW 500B; those with wide NAV discounts and lighter controlling stakes—SK’s holding companies, Samsung C&T, Hanwha, LG, LS—are prime re-rating plays.

Alipay (second largest shareholder of Kakaopay (377300 KS)) is issuing an overseas exchangeable bonds (EB) worth 627 billion won (backed by its shares in Kakao Pay).
The exchange price of the EB is 54,744 won (4.5% discount to current price). Total amount of EB issue is 627 billion won ($450 million).
This deal is basically a quasi-block deal. Alipay is trying to unload some of its stake in Kakao Pay to improve its finances.

In this insight, we discuss the alpha generation through companies that announced share buybacks in the Korean stock market in July and August 2025.
We provide a list of 29 companies in the Korean stock market that have announced share buyback programs in July and August 2025.
There were three companies with more than 1 trillion won in market cap that announced share buybacks in the past two months with at least 1% of outstanding shares.

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