Korean Stock & Equity Research

Korean Equities/Dividend & Value-up

The Korea Value-Up Index, launched by KRX in September 2024, screens roughly 100 KOSPI and KOSDAQ companies against five criteria: top-400 market capitalization, two consecutive profitable years, consistent shareholder returns, above-median price-to-book ratio, and strong return on equity — and the current constituent list is published directly by KRX, making replication straightforward even wit..

Korean Equities/Dividend & Value-up

POSCO Holdings, the group's parent company, faces a structurally harder dividend story than POSCO International, its trading and energy affiliate — steelmaking is capital-intensive and cyclical, tying dividend sustainability closely to global steel pricing and Chinese oversupply dynamics, while POSCO International's more diversified trading and LNG business has supported steadier distributions. ..

Korean Equities/Dividend & Value-up

Korean preferred shares (우선주) typically carry no voting rights but receive a small fixed additional dividend over common shares — usually just tens to a few hundred Won per share annually — and because they usually trade at a meaningful discount to the common share price, that fixed extra dividend translates into a noticeably higher percentage yield. This article is part of our Top High-Dividend..

Korean Equities/Dividend & Value-up

Since July 22, 2025, Korean directors have owed a fiduciary duty directly to shareholders, not just to the company itself — a change to Article 382-3 of the Korean Commercial Code that gives the Value-Up Program's shareholder-protection goals actual legal backing for the first time. The amendment passed the National Assembly on July 3, 2025, following an earlier presidential veto in April, and w..

Korean Equities/Dividend & Value-up

Companies participating in the Value-Up Program file their initial plans and subsequent annual progress assessments as voluntary disclosures on DART — Shinhan Financial Group's 2025 assessment, for example, reported ROE improving 67 basis points to 9.11% and its shareholder return ratio reaching 50.2%, against a targeted 50% goal. Reading these filings directly, rather than relying on secondhand..

Korean Equities/Dividend & Value-up

The Value-Up dividend surge extends well beyond financials — Hyundai Motor's 654.5 billion Won dividend distribution led all KOSPI companies in one recent August 2026 record-date window, with HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, POSCO International, and KT&G all distributing over 200 billion Won each in the same stretch. This article is part of our Top High-Dividend Korean Stocks & Corporate Value-Up St..

Korean Equities/Dividend & Value-up

Korea's new separate taxation rule for dividend income, effective January 1, 2026, lets individual investors in qualifying high-dividend companies elect a flat 14-35% rate instead of folding dividends into Korea's steeply progressive comprehensive income tax — and it's already working: the share of listed companies qualifying for the benefit nearly doubled year-over-year, from 24.2% to 44.8% of ..

Korean Equities/Dividend & Value-up

Samsung Securities' projected 2026 dividend implies a yield of roughly 6.9%, and NH Investment & Securities' preferred shares have approached a 9% yield — both benefiting from the same brokerage fee income boom lifting Korea's major banks, plus a sector-specific tailwind from higher trading volumes. This article is part of our Top High-Dividend Korean Stocks & Corporate Value-Up Strategy guide. ..