The Korea Exchange has publicly identified 151 listed companies, including Lotte Shopping, E-Mart, and Hyundai Steel, as having low price-to-book ratios (PBR). This initiative aims to encourage voluntary improvements in corporate value for companies that have been undervalued in the market for an extended period.
According to the Korea Exchange, the low PBR companies announced today include 96 from the KOSPI market and 55 from the KOSDAQ market. This announcement follows the 'Capital Market Improvement Plan' jointly released by relevant authorities in March.
Low PBR companies are defined as those that have remained in the bottom tier of their respective markets and sectors for six consecutive half-year periods or for six out of the last seven half-year periods. The criteria for the KOSPI market is the bottom 25% by sector, while for the KOSDAQ market, it is the bottom 10%.
The exchange calculated PBR for 2,431 companies, excluding those that have faced delisting as of October 22. Among these, 185 met the low PBR criteria, but 34 companies that disclosed plans to improve their PBR were ultimately excluded from the final list.
Included in the announcement are companies with market capitalizations exceeding 1 trillion won, such as Lotte Shopping (0.17), E-Mart (0.15), Lotte Chemical (0.18), Hyundai Steel (0.19), and Hanwha Life (0.27). In the KOSDAQ market, KCC Construction (0.20) and Spigen Korea (0.31) are also listed.
The Korea Exchange will publish the list of the 151 low PBR companies on its Value-Up page within the listing disclosure system (KIND) and will introduce a 'low PBR' label in mobile and home trading systems (MTS/HTS) of securities firms.
Additionally, the exchange plans to provide one-on-one customized PBR improvement consulting for all 151 companies next year. The Financial Services Commission is also working on revising stewardship code guidelines to promote shareholder engagement by institutional investors.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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