South Korea Archives | Page 16 of 126

Jul 07

Daily Brief South Korea: OCI Holdings , Naver Corp, POSCO Holdings, Daehan Shipbuilding and more

By Smartkarma Daily Briefs | Daily Briefs, South Korea

In today’s briefing:

Korea’s Next Policy Trade: Locals’ Screens for Dividend Tax Reform Plays
Top 10 Korean Stock Picks and Key Catalysts Bi-Weekly (4 to 18 July 2025)
POSCO Holdings (KRX: 005490.KQ | NYSE: PKX): Steel Giant in Transition with Deep-Value Appeal
Daehan Shipbuilding Pre-IPO: Discount to Peers but Some Things to Take Note Of

Korea’s Next Policy Trade: Locals’ Screens for Dividend Tax Reform Plays

By Sanghyun Park

With the governance trade fading, local desks are rotating into dividend tax reform—bipartisan tailwinds and rising political chatter are driving early positioning ahead of potential rerating.
Local desks are screening for names with 35%+ payout and 30%+ individual ownership, key thresholds tied to the ruling party’s dividend tax reform bill gaining traction in policy circles.
The real trade is in names with individual top holders—direct beneficiaries of the tax reform—most exposed to theme flows and likely to lead on dividend hikes if the bill passes.

Top 10 Korean Stock Picks and Key Catalysts Bi-Weekly (4 to 18 July 2025)

By Douglas Kim

In this insight, we provide the top 10 stocks picks and key catalysts in the Korean stock market for the two weeks (4 to 18 July 2025).
Korea Electric Power (KEPCO) (015760 KS) was the best performing stock among the top 100 stocks in KOSPI in the past two weeks.
The top 10 picks in this bi-weekly include LG Uplus, KCC, SK Hynix, Naver, Korea Kolmar, Korea Investment Holdings, Misto Holdings, Lotte Tour Development, LG Chem, and SK Inc.

POSCO Holdings (KRX: 005490.KQ | NYSE: PKX): Steel Giant in Transition with Deep-Value Appeal

By Rahul Jain

After peaking in 2021, POSCO’s performance has steadily weakened, with revenue and margins declining due to softer steel prices and macro headwinds.
The group is gradually pivoting toward battery materials and EV supply chains via POSCO Future M, backed by large investments in lithium, cathodes, and green hydrogen.
Despite near-term profitability pressure, the stock trades at just 0.5× book and ~4.7× EV/EBITDA, offering compelling value if its transition strategy plays out.

Daehan Shipbuilding Pre-IPO: Discount to Peers but Some Things to Take Note Of

By Nicholas Tan

Daehan Shipbuilding (439260 KS) is looking to raise up to US$370m in its upcoming Korean IPO.
It specializes in the design and construction of medium-sized (Aframax) and semi-large sized (Suezmax) vessels for crude oil and petroleum product transportation.
In this note, we examine the IPO dynamics, and look at the firm’s valuation.

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Jul 06

Daily Brief South Korea: Infinitt Healthcare and more

By Smartkarma Daily Briefs | Daily Briefs, South Korea

In today’s briefing:

Korea Small Cap Gem #38: Infinitt Healthcare

Korea Small Cap Gem #38: Infinitt Healthcare

By Douglas Kim

Infinitt Healthcare is a leading Korean healthcare IT solutions specializing in medical imaging and enterprise imaging platforms. It is the number one provider of PACS system in Korea.
Five major investment highlights include strong export growth, solid growth in sales and operating profits, number one player in PACS system in Korea, strong balance sheet, and attractive valuations.
The company has a strong balance sheet. Net cash was 150 billion won at the end of 1Q 2025, representing 95% of its market cap.

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Jul 05

Daily Brief South Korea: Samsung Heavy Industries and more

By Smartkarma Daily Briefs | Daily Briefs, South Korea

In today’s briefing:

Samsung’s Vietnam Pivot: Small Deal, Big Signal

Samsung’s Vietnam Pivot: Small Deal, Big Signal

By Rahul Jain

SHI has signed an MoU with PetroVietnam Shipyard to build two Suezmax and two LR2 tankers, marking its first move into Vietnam.
With Geoje running at 117% utilization, SHI has outsourced over 12 Suezmax tankers to PaxOcean Zhoushan and holds ~$3–3.5 billion in tanker backlog.
While modest in scale, the Vietnam deal could reshape SHI’s outsourcing model—diversifying away from China and laying the groundwork for a longer-term shift in global production strategy.

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Jul 04

Daily Brief South Korea: Kcc Corp, Cosmecca Korea and more

By Smartkarma Daily Briefs | Daily Briefs, South Korea

In today’s briefing:

KCC Corp: EB Issue of $625 Million Of HD KSOE + KCC Corp and KCC Glass Share Swaps
Cosmecca Korea: Switching Listing from KOSDAQ to KOSPI Likely to Be Completed in 2H 2025

KCC Corp: EB Issue of $625 Million Of HD KSOE + KCC Corp and KCC Glass Share Swaps

By Douglas Kim

KCC announced that it is issuing an EB worth $625 million in foreign currency using its stake in HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering as the underlying asset.
The asset that is used as the underlying asset for the EB is 2.056 million shares of HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering held by the KCC Corp
We believe this large EB issue by KCC Corp is likely to have a positive impact on KCC Corp but slightly negative impact on HD KSOE.

Cosmecca Korea: Switching Listing from KOSDAQ to KOSPI Likely to Be Completed in 2H 2025

By Douglas Kim

On 2 July, Cosmecca Korea (241710 KS) announced that it plans to switch its listing from KOSDAQ to KOSPI. Cosmecca Korea is the third largest cosmetics ODM company in Korea.
Cosmecca Korea’s ROE is similar to the average ROE of the comps. However, Cosmecca Korea’s P/B valuation is 36% discount to that of the comps.
By switching its listing from KOSDAQ to KOSPI, there is an increasing probability of the Cosmecca Korea receiving higher valuations, narrowing the gap with its peers.

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Jul 03

Daily Brief South Korea: Misto Holdings and more

By Smartkarma Daily Briefs | Daily Briefs, South Korea

In today’s briefing:

Alpha Generation Through Share Buybacks in Korea: Bi-Monthly (May and June 2025)

Alpha Generation Through Share Buybacks in Korea: Bi-Monthly (May and June 2025)

By Douglas Kim

In this insight, we discuss the alpha generation through companies that announced share buybacks in the Korean stock market in May and June 2025.
There were 24 companies in the Korean stock market that announced share buybacks in the past two months. On average, the share buyback announcements represented 1.7% of outstanding shares.
There were four companies with more than 100 billion won in market cap that announced share buybacks in May and June with at least 3% of outstanding shares.

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Jul 02

Daily Brief South Korea: Hyundai Construction Equipment, HD Hyundai Infracore, Samsung Electronics, Daehan Shipbuilding, Samsung SDI, LG Electronics and more

By Smartkarma Daily Briefs | Daily Briefs, South Korea

In today’s briefing:

HD HCE–Infracore Merger: Deal Mechanics & Trade Playbook
Merger Between HD Hyundai Infracore and HD Hyundai Construction Equipment
Samsung 2Q25 Official Leaks: Sharp Decline in Operating Profits, but It’s the Bottom. Really?
Daehan Shipbuilding Pre-IPO: PE Cashing Cheques on the Shipping Boom
Samsung SDI (006400): Still a No
LG Electronics- An Insight Into Its Premium Innovative Product Development & Market Positioning!

HD HCE–Infracore Merger: Deal Mechanics & Trade Playbook

By Sanghyun Park

This event offers two arb plays—merger swap and appraisal rights—but there’s barely any juice left as pricing locked the market into an unusually tight range.
Yeah, it’s tight. Unless cancel risk flares up, the spread likely stays muted—major holder’s balanced stakes make vote pushback or ratio disputes pretty unlikely.
One angle to watch: passive flows. HCE likely joins KOSPI 200 post-merger, triggering index buys around Infracore’s halt on Dec 30—potentially a solid year-end positioning play.

Merger Between HD Hyundai Infracore and HD Hyundai Construction Equipment

By Douglas Kim

After the market close on 1 July, HD Hyundai Infracore announced that it will be merging with HD Hyundai Construction Equipment.
The merger ratio is 0.1621707 common shares of HD Hyundai Construction Equipment for each common share of HD Hyundai Infracore.
We have Negative ratings on both HD Hyundai Infracore and HD Hyundai Construction Equipment.

Samsung 2Q25 Official Leaks: Sharp Decline in Operating Profits, but It’s the Bottom. Really?

By Nicolas Baratte

Samsung doesn’t provide guidance when it reports, but gives revenue an operating profit guidance ~2 weeks before reporting. But we have an officially non-official preview in Korean media.
2Q25 operating profit will be “weaker than expected”, declining “by more than 15% from the first quarter” to KRW mid-5 trillion range. Consensus expects +1% QoQ.
Some positive news to counter balance this large disappointment – smartphone, HBM3E – I am skeptical any of these can lift profits in 2H25, revisit early 2026.

Daehan Shipbuilding Pre-IPO: PE Cashing Cheques on the Shipping Boom

By Nicholas Tan

Daehan Shipbuilding (439260 KS) is looking to raise up to US$350m in its upcoming Korean IPO.
It specializes in the design and construction of medium-sized (Aframax) and semi-large sized (Suezmax) vessels for crude oil and petroleum product transportation.
In this note, we provide updates on the firm’s past performance.

Samsung SDI (006400): Still a No

By Henry Soediarko

The EU ended the direct purchase subsidies for EVs; that is a negative for Samsung SDI (006400 KS).
Management is quite bullish, but the last two quarters result were quite informative on the level of margin and contribution from the battery business.
It trades around 112x PER while historically around 25-35x PER and its competitor Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) (3750 HK) is only trading at 20x.

LG Electronics- An Insight Into Its Premium Innovative Product Development & Market Positioning!

By Baptista Research

LG Electronics presented its first-quarter financial results for 2025, painting a nuanced picture of challenges and strategic initiatives that the company is undertaking.
LG Electronics reported consolidated sales of KRW 22.74 trillion and an operating profit of KRW 1.26 trillion for the quarter.
The results showcased a strong quarter with record-high sales figures from several of its business segments, notably in Household Solutions (HS), Vehicle Solutions (VS), and Environmental Solutions (ES).

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Jul 01

Daily Brief South Korea: Shift Up, Easy Bio, Samsung Electronics and more

By Smartkarma Daily Briefs | Daily Briefs, South Korea

In today’s briefing:

Sizing up September’s KOSPI Size Index Migration Names
Korea Small Cap Gem #37: Easy Bio Inc
Chips News: GPU, CPU in China. Qualcomm Going to Samsung Maybe, Microsoft Accelerator Delayed.

Sizing up September’s KOSPI Size Index Migration Names

By Sanghyun Park

Early take based on avg daily mkt cap: 5 MID→LARGE, 6 LARGE→MID. Count mismatch due to LG CNS likely making a direct jump into LARGE post-March IPO.
Local insto-driven moves remain tradable — in the March reshuffle, price action started from T–2M, with strongest returns in the T–1M window.
With cap gaps near historical norms, it’s time to pre-position around top/bottom cutline names — then scale up into borderlines as we move into the T–1M window.

Korea Small Cap Gem #37: Easy Bio Inc

By Douglas Kim

Easy Bio Inc is one of the leaders specializing in piglet feed and animal feed additives in Korea.
The company completed an excellent M&A of a company in the US called Devenish Nutrition in February 2024 for 88 billion won.
If we assume a P/E of 10x and apply this on consensus net profit estimate of 36.3 billion won in 2026, this would suggest market cap of 363 billion won.

Chips News: GPU, CPU in China. Qualcomm Going to Samsung Maybe, Microsoft Accelerator Delayed.

By Nicolas Baratte

Lisuan new GPU is a first step, but performance far behind AMD/Nvidia. Loongson new server CPU looks good, close to Intel chip of 2021. Major bottleneck remains SMIC 7nm capacity.
Qualcomm looks close to qualifying Samsung’s 2nm to manufacture Snapdragon 8 Elite 2. This would imply a major yield breakthru for Samsung.
Microsoft ARM CPU Maia is in production, but its AI accelerator Braga seems delayed significantly – either performance or an architecture rethink.

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Jun 30

Daily Brief South Korea: VIOL , Woori Financial Group and more

By Smartkarma Daily Briefs | Daily Briefs, South Korea

In today’s briefing:

VIOL (335890 KS): VIG Partners’ Tender Offer And DMS’ Strategic Exit
Samsung F&M (000815 KS) Vs. Woori (316140 KS): No Mean Reversion (Yet), Time to Reassess the Pair

VIOL (335890 KS): VIG Partners’ Tender Offer And DMS’ Strategic Exit

By David Blennerhassett

VIG Partners, a PE-outfit, is seeking to delist VIOL (335890 KS), an aesthetic medical devices manufacturer, whose major shareholder, DMS (068790 KS), faces allegations of unfair internal transactions.
VIG first acquired 7% of DMS (068790 KS)’s 34.76% controlling stake in VIOL, following which, DMS contributed the remaining 27.76% in-kind to VIG’s SPV at a valuation of ₩12,500/share.
VIG’s SPV’s tender offer launched on 18th June, also at ₩12,500/share, and runs until the 7th July 7. The Offer is conditional on a minimum acceptance threshold of 20.76%.

Samsung F&M (000815 KS) Vs. Woori (316140 KS): No Mean Reversion (Yet), Time to Reassess the Pair

By Gaudenz Schneider

Context: This article provides an update on a previously identified pair trading opportunity between Samsung Fire & Marine Insuranc (000815 KS) and Woori Financial Group (316140 KS).
Key Insights: The pair has not mean-reverted. This Insight discusses the use of a Stop Loss in a statistical pair trading context and why one might be considered at this point.
Why Read It: For investors interested in quantitative strategies, this article demonstrates some of the mechanics of statistical arbitrage and which indicators can be used to decide on exiting a position.

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Jun 29

Daily Brief South Korea: Gemvax & Kael, DH Shipbuilding and more

By Smartkarma Daily Briefs | Daily Briefs, South Korea

In today’s briefing:

KRX Semicon Index Sep Rebalance — Watch Closely
DH Shipbuilding IPO Valuation Analysis

KRX Semicon Index Sep Rebalance — Watch Closely

By Sanghyun Park

67 semi names screen into TMI Large-Mid; with stable churn, they’re a solid base for the Sept rebalance. Filter by ADTV and mkt cap to get likely basket.
Last year’s Sept rebalance saw wild moves, especially in the week prior, driven by low visibility from the non-public BMI universe, which amped up uncertainty and volatility.
This year’s TMI-based rebalance may see more front-loading and smoother flows, but with low market awareness and no playbook yet, chunky moves are still on the table.

DH Shipbuilding IPO Valuation Analysis

By Douglas Kim

Our base case valuation of DH Shipbuilding IPO is target price of 67,576 won per share, which represents a 35% upside to the high end of the IPO price range.
Given the solid upside, we have a Positive view of this IPO. Our valuation sensitivity analysis suggests a market cap range of 2.3 trillion won to 2.9 trillion won.
Our target valuation multiple of 5.7x is 20% premium to the comps’ P/B valuation multiple which is justified due to the company’s higher ROE, operating margins and stronger balance sheet.

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Jun 28

Daily Brief South Korea: Hanwha Corporation, Kakaopay , Taekwang Industrial and more

By Smartkarma Daily Briefs | Daily Briefs, South Korea

In today’s briefing:

Minority Shareholders of Hanwha Corp Preferred Shares Demand Better Protection
Payment Companies – Introducing the Sector Scorecard
Taekwang Industrial: Issuing EB Worth 319 Billion Won Based on Its Treasury Shares [Poor Governance]

Minority Shareholders of Hanwha Corp Preferred Shares Demand Better Protection

By Douglas Kim

Minority shareholders of Hanwha Corp preferred shares are demanding better protection (such as converting preferred shares into common shares) and are criticizing the potential delisting of its shares.
We provide four major scenarios that could occur for Hanwha Corp preferred shares (000885 KS) in the coming weeks.
The fact that Hanwha Group companies are on such positive momentum, it would be in the best interest for Hanwha to improve shareholder value of the Hanwha Corp’s preferred shares.

Payment Companies – Introducing the Sector Scorecard

By Victor Galliano

We introduce our payments scorecard in this report, in which we apply weightings to our metrics of valuation, margins, EBITDA growth estimates and valuation-to-growth to deliver rankings
We keep PagSeguro and Nexi on the buy list, both of these are in the top three in the scorecard; we add PayPal to the buys, replacing the mega-cap Visa
We remove our sell rating on Affirm, replacing it with Kakao Pay; Kakao Pay stock has rallied hard on stablecoin speculation, but our concern is that investors under-estimate regulatory risk

Taekwang Industrial: Issuing EB Worth 319 Billion Won Based on Its Treasury Shares [Poor Governance]

By Douglas Kim

After the market close on 27 June, Taekwang Industrial (003240 KS) announced that it is issuing an exchangeable bond (EB) worth 319 billion won based on its treasury shares.
Taekwang Industrial announced it will issue EBs with the 271,769 treasury stocks representing 24.41% of the issued shares. This is poor corporate governance and not shareholder friendly.
Going forward, we believe its shares are likely to underperform the market in the next 1-2 years.

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South Korea Archives | Page 16 of 126 | Smartkarma

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