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korea
126 stories tagged “korea”, each from official Korean data with its source and timestamp.
Korean business segment reporting, by company size: the biggest disclose eight, the smallest disclose one
Half of 737 Korean listed companies report a single business segment. Among companies above $10bn in market value only 23% do — and their median is eight. Segment disclosure is not in the accounts tape; it is in the annual report text.
10 More Korean Rights Issues: One Diluted 17.3%, Another 61.6%
A fresh batch of filings, late August through mid-September: the largest raise (Samsung FN REIT, ₩97.7bn) diluted shareholders 17.3%. The second-largest (Heng Sheng Holding Group, ₩60.0bn) diluted them 61.6%. Not advice.
A 2021 Drama Licensing Deal Was Kept Secret for Five Years. The Embargo Just Ended.
Samhwa Networks signed a $5.6 million global streaming license for its drama Now, Showtime! in 2021 and was allowed to withhold the amount. The filing disclosing it, five years later, states why: the embargo period ran out.
A Coupang Robotics Contract Shrank by 40% — After the Work Was Done
CMES Robotics disclosed a ₩1.19 billion Coupang warehouse-automation contract as 17.2% of revenue. Its amendment, filed after the contract ended, revises it down to ₩713 million — 10.34% — the amount actually collected.
K3I's Buyer Has ₩5.8 Billion in Assets. It's Paying ₩21 Billion for Control.
J's Commerce, formed in 2018, is buying a 39.96% stake in K3I from the founder's family for ₩21 billion. Its own filed balance sheet shows ₩5.836 billion in total assets — far below the purchase price.
Namhwa Construction Amended a ₩7.68 Billion Contract — Only the Timeline Changed
Namhwa Construction's supply contract with Daegwang Community Credit Cooperative, worth 13.56% of revenue, was amended on 23 September. The filing states only the contract period changed — the amount did not.
Spear Won't Name Its Aerospace Customer. The Filing Still Gives Up 12%.
Spear disclosed an ₩11.58 billion special-alloy contract worth 12.1% of revenue. The counterparty is withheld, described only as a 'US global aerospace launch company' — but the amount and ratio are not.
Two Korean Companies Filed Share Cancellations the Same Day. One Retires Nearly 10% of Its Stock.
Intem and KTis both filed board-approved share cancellation decisions on 23 September. Intem is retiring 4.74% of its shares; KTis is retiring 9.76% — more than double the ratio, from already-acquired treasury stock in both cases.
Stretch the window from three years to five and Korea's unbroken-profit share falls from 45.3% to 37.7%
Of 2,049 Korean listed companies that filed a net profit in all five years from 2021 to 2025, 772 were profitable in every one. The same test over 2023–2025 passes 1,072 of 2,368 — the count moves with the window.
Hyundai Rotem's Taiwan Rail Contract Is 5.9% of Last Year's Revenue
A ₩344.5 billion supply contract with Taiwan's Taoyuan Department of Rapid Transit Systems runs through October 2034 — eight years, filed the same day as two other same-industry disclosures.
11.7% of Japanese listed filers reported a net loss. In Korea the figure is 38.2%
We now hold filed annual accounts for 3,672 Japanese listed companies alongside 2,709 Korean ones. On the most recent filing each side, the median Japanese filer earned an 8.0% return on equity; the median Korean filer earned 2.6%.
49.0% on KOSPI, 31.9% on KOSDAQ — and on KONEX we cannot count at all
Split Korea's five-year profit streaks by listing board and the market-wide 37.7% comes apart. KONEX gets no figure: only 6 of its 107 companies filed annual accounts in all five years.
SK Biopharmaceuticals Signed a 9% Supply Contract — With Its Own Subsidiary
The ₩63.3 billion deal names SK Life Science, Inc. as the counterparty, and the filing states the relationship: SK Biopharmaceuticals' own subsidiary. The filing ties it to XCOPRI, the company's US-marketed epilepsy drug.
A Korean Controlling Shareholder Crossed 51% in One Filing
Hantop's largest shareholder reported a 9.16-point jump to 51.56% on 8 September — one filing combining a related party's private-placement share purchase with a change to pledged loan collateral.
A Korean REIT Issued Two Convertible Bonds the Same Day. Together They're 8.13% Dilution.
Koramco Life Infra REIT's board approved two private convertible bonds on 21 September — same conversion price, same coupon, same maturity date — worth a combined 34 billion won and 8,308,894 potential new shares.
Cellid Raised 10 Billion Won by Diluting Shares 16 Percent
A single third-party placement filed today adds 4.8 million new Cellid shares to a base of 29.5 million — 16.26% dilution, with the company's own filing marking 9.999 billion of the roughly 10 billion won raised as general operating funds.
Four Korean Dilution Filings Landed in Three Weeks. One Tops 100 Percent.
Korea Advanced Materials issued two same-day, same-price convertible bonds worth a combined 20.62% dilution — the fourth of four unrelated dilution filings we checked from early September to today, ranging from 8% to 164%.
More Than Half of Korea's Material Filings Are Corrections of Earlier Ones
Of 816 material disclosures Korean listed companies filed in 28 days, 430 — 52.7% — are re-filings marked as corrections. Convertible bonds 72%, capital raises 65%, supply contracts 60%. Not advice.
One Korean Convertible Bond Is Worth 164% of the Company's Shares. A Second, Filed a Day Later, Is 13%.
THE CODI's board approved a 30 billion won convertible bond on 7 September that would create more shares than the company has outstanding — 163.75% dilution by its own figure — then a smaller bond the next day.
POSCO Holdings' Stake in Two Units Landed Right at the 50% Line, Same Day
Two 5%-ownership disclosures filed the same day show POSCO Holdings' stake falling to 50.01% in POSCO International and exactly 50% in POSCO DX — both crossing more than 15 percentage points down in a single filing.
An Analyst 'Leaderboard' We Called Ranked Turned Out to Be Alphabetical
We published an article calling an analyst Korea's '#1-ranked' by score. The rank field we read was sorting 74 names alphabetically, not by performance. We're correcting it and showing how we caught it.
A Company Paid a 9.6% Premium to Cancel a Convertible Bond It Had Sold Three Months Earlier
Emgen Solution sold a private convertible bond in June 2026. In September it bought the whole issue back for 9.6% over face value -- canceling 8.3% worth of potential dilution, 32 months before the bond was due.
One broker's target price fell 75 percent overnight. It was a stock split, not a downgrade.
Of 53 target-price revisions filed on September 21, one showed a 75% overnight cut. The company's shares had been split 4-for-1 five weeks earlier — the number was arithmetic, not a bearish call.
The Same Analyst Dataset That Mislabeled a Rank Would Also Let You Rank Firms on 3 Data Points
Grouping the September 18 analyst snapshot by brokerage firm gives averages from 16.7% to 54.2% accuracy. The lowest belongs to the firm of the analyst our earlier article wrongly called 'ranked #1' — driven by a three-person sample.
Samsung C&T's 1.83 Trillion Won Project Is a Construction Selection, Not Yet a Contract
Samsung C&T disclosed being chosen to build a 1.8275 trillion won Seoul redevelopment project -- 4.49% of its FY2025 revenue. The filing itself says the amount can still change and the actual contract has not been signed.
Seohee Construction's New Contract Is 29% of Last Year's Revenue. It Doesn't Start for 21 Months.
A single apartment contract filed today equals 28.93% of Seohee Construction's most recent revenue. Construction starts in June 2027 — and this exact contract type has fallen through for the company before.
Four Korean firms filed identical 'rumor unconfirmed' disclosures the same day. One stock fell, one rose.
Four Korean firms filed identical 'rumor unconfirmed' disclosures on September 18 — zero other days in our 17-day scan had any. Press reports say two of them moved in opposite directions.
One Korean private placement diluted shares by 80 percent. Another, by 106 percent.
NC& and Satoshi Holdings each filed third-party share placements this month. NC&'s new shares equal 79.7% of its prior count; Satoshi's new shares exceed its prior count outright, at 105.9%.
Three Korean companies announced buybacks on the same day. Only one will retire the shares.
Exem, Shinhung, and Handsome Corporation filed buybacks on September 18. Handsome's plan is 7-10x larger and the only one that also commits to cancelling the shares.
Zero Korean companies changed CEO or owner for 17 straight trading days. Then seven did, in one.
DART recorded zero CEO-change and control-change disclosures on 17 straight scanned days. On September 18, three companies replaced their CEO and four filed ownership-change corrections.
Korea lists futures on 1,799 stocks. On one day, 333 of them traded.
One name took a third of the day's stock-futures volume. Five names took half of it; five out of six listed stock futures did not trade at all.
Korea registered 138 new fund codes in a day — half were equity funds, two were retirement target-date funds
A single day's fund-code registrations show what asset managers are launching right now: 69 equity funds, 23 bond funds, 21 fund-of-funds, and only two target-date retirement funds.
Korea's short-margin balance has fallen two-thirds from its 2023 peak
The balance of shares borrowed for short-margin trading stood at 31.3 billion won on September 2, 2026 — down 43.1 percent from a year earlier and less than a third of its February 2023 high of 94.0 billion won.
Six Korean retail bonds showed yields between −424 percent and +35 percent in one day's data
Among 350 bonds in KRX's general and small-lot bond markets on September 17, six posted yields no real bond earns — a byproduct of trades as small as 10,000 won face value setting the day's quoted price.
10 Korean-listed companies filed delisting-risk disclosures on one day
DART recorded delisting-risk disclosures from ten separately listed companies on September 18 — zero on any other day this week. We could not confirm why they clustered on this date.
Korea's #1-ranked stock analyst has a stated 0 percent accuracy score
Among 74 ranked analysts on a Korean brokerage-research leaderboard, 27 — more than a third, including the top-ranked name — carry a 0 percent accuracy figure. Rank score and accuracy correlate only loosely (r=0.72).
Korea's leading indicator is the highest of four Asian economies we track. China's is the only one below trend.
OECD composite leading indicators for Korea, Japan, India and China through August 2026. Korea's has risen every month for 20 months running; China's has fallen every month for 19. Not a forecast — a reading of where each series sits now.
Foreign-disclosed holdings of Korean securities fell 12.7 percent in a year
Among 73 countries reporting a Korea position to the IMF in both 2023 and 2024, combined holdings fell from $729.1B to $636.1B. A lower bound, not a full total — non-reporters are absent, not zero.
A 75-point stake vanished — and the filing didn't name who took over
Tongyang Life's Chinese owner reported selling its entire stake in one filing, the largest exit in our ledger of Korean ownership disclosures. Of the nine biggest full sell-outs we found, only three say a controlling shareholder changed.
For fifteen straight years, the most common new Korean fund was a derivative. In 2024 that stopped.
Read by establishment year, Korea's fund register has changed hands three times: mixed-bond funds through 2008, derivative funds 2009 to 2023, funds-of-funds since. Derivative codes fell from 1,633 to 238 in one year.
Korea's euro futures are held and not traded. Its yen futures are traded and not held.
A follow-up to our August count, on an axis it did not carry: open interest. Korea's euro book is two-thirds larger than its yen book and turns over about a fortieth as fast. Yuan open interest is 21 to 41 contracts.
Korea's exchange prices the same gold twice. The retail bar is not the dearer one.
KRX lists 99.99% gold in two sizes: a 1kg bar and a 100g mini. Over 49 sessions the mini closed higher by a median of 0.015 percent — and it closed lower on 22 of them. On five days the two moved in opposite directions.
We measured Korea's two oil prices in August. Ten weeks later the kerosene auction is almost gone.
Our August count put the kerosene auction dark one day in six across six years. Over the 49 sessions to 9 September it was dark 47 times — and petrol and diesel have tripled their own dark rate.
Korea's exports show no sign of US-tariff rerouting
A popular worry is exporters rerouting around US tariffs via Vietnam or Mexico. Korea's own customs data shows the opposite over the past year: the US share of Korean exports rose 2.6 points; Vietnam and Mexico's shares both fell.
Goldman's KOSPI upside went from 80% to 71.5%
Goldman Sachs kept its 12,000 KOSPI target unchanged. The 'upside' headline moved anyway — from about 80% to 71.5% — because two outlets, writing the same day, measured it against closes one 4.61% session apart.
A stock forecaster's low-end misses keep growing
A Korean outlet scores its own weekly KOSPI price forecasts against what actually happened. Three straight weeks: high forecasts stayed accurate, low forecasts missed by more each week — 2.89%, 6.61%, 8.10%.
The won just hit a 14-month high, two months after its worst point
On 7 September the won closed at 1,355.2 to the dollar — its strongest since 2 July 2025. That is 12.8% stronger than the 1,554.4 it hit on 2 July 2026, almost exactly a year later. The whole year's move unwound in nine weeks.
Korea's air cargo grew 10% in two years. China and Japan grew 3x that
Freight arriving in Korea from China rose 23.8% and from Japan 28.3% between July 2024 and July 2026, while total air cargo grew only 10.0%. The catch-all 'rest of Asia' bucket, still the largest single source, barely moved and lost share.
China's Korea-bound air traffic jumped 48% in two years
Passengers arriving in Korea from China rose 47.7% from July 2024 to July 2026, while flights on that route rose only 21.4% — planes are fuller, not just more frequent. Middle East and Oceania traffic fell over the same year.
Korea's bond curve, one day: 3.47% at a year, 4.64% at thirty — then it dips
On 2026-09-04, Bank of Korea's own reference yields ran from 3.47% at one year to a peak of 4.64% at thirty years, then fell back to 4.54% at fifty. The long end of Korea's curve is not a straight climb.
Korea's August exports: 68.7% jump, confirmed
A post shared on r/korea said Korea's August exports jumped 68.7% to $98.25bn. That matches the Korea Customs Service's own release exactly — and it's the 15th straight month of a record August-equivalent high.
Korea CPI: mobile fee jumped 26.7%, rest flat
Korea's August CPI rose 3.09% year-on-year. The 'telecom base effect' two papers cited sits almost entirely in one line: the mobile phone fee index, up 26.74% — while landline and internet fees barely moved.
96% of Korean firms pay men more
A census of 2,282 Korean listed companies' own half-year filings: the median company pays men 35.9% more than women. 96.0% pay men more by 5% or more. Only 1.4% pay women more.
KEPCO confirms ₩25tn power-prepay ask, terms unset
Korean outlets reported KEPCO asked Samsung Electronics (₩20tn) and SK Hynix (₩5tn) to prepay five years of power bills for chip-cluster grid buildout. KEPCO confirmed a proposal exists — amount, rate and timeline are still unset.
KOSPI hit 6,835.8, then fell 4% next day
A widely shared post said Korea's KOSPI closed at 6,835.8, up 0.23%. We checked it against the exchange's own data — it was exactly right, for that one day. The next session, the index dropped 3.99%.
Korea's listed firms: median tenure is 6.2 years
A census of 2,839 Korean listed companies' own annual filings: the median company's staff has stayed 6.2 years on average. 1 in 8 companies average under 3 years — and a smaller 1 in 17 average 15 years or more.
28,244 falls: Korea's top workplace injury in 2024
Korea's Ministry of Employment and Labor tracks every reported workplace injury by cause. In 2024, simple falls and slips — not machinery, not falls from height — injured more workers than anything else. A second cause is catching up fast.
35 Korean capital raises ranked 3 ways — size never predicted the outcome
This week we ranked 35 Korean capital-raising filings three ways — buybacks, rights issues, convertible bonds. In every single one, the size of the deal did not predict what it meant for existing shareholders.
KG Mobility's convertible bond dilutes shares 22%
Five Korean convertible bonds filed this week all pay 0% surface interest — the option to convert is the entire return. Potential dilution on conversion ranges from 1.0% to 22.0%, and it isn't the biggest raise that dilutes least.
Korea's ₩107tn offshore filings: mostly new filers
Korea's National Tax Service reported ₩107.1tn in offshore assets this year, up 13.3%. But the filer count rose 9.1% to 7,484 — the average holder reported only 3.9% more than last year.
Meritz Securities: top pay, 2.18x gender gap
CEOScore reported nine Korean firms with H1 2026 average pay above ₩100m. We re-pulled the same DART filings and split them by gender — every one has a gap, from 1.31x to 2.18x.
Korea's biggest trade partner isn't its most vital
Rank Korea's trade by size and one or two partners top every list. But a rank measures volume, not dependence — and the countries Korea sells to are not the ones it buys from. Size is not the same as need.
Celltrion's biggest buyback won't cancel a share
Celltrion's ₩100.0bn buyback dwarfs eight others filed with Korea's regulator this week — and carries no cancellation clause. The three firms that do promise to cancel are the smallest on the list.
183,351 funds isn't 183,351 choices
Korea's registry holds 183,351 funds — sounds like endless choice. But most launches are derivatives and bonds, equity funds are one in ten, and new launches have halved since 2020. A big count is not a wide menu.
Not one Korean region's merchants expect improvement
Korea's small merchants are asked each month if they expect the next to be better. In the latest regional data, all 17 provinces answer no — the index runs 64.5 to 80.6, every one below the neutral 100, big cities near the bottom.
Overtime fell 30% — less strain, or less pay?
Korean regular-worker overtime fell from 11.5 hours a month in 2011 to 8.1 in 2025 — down about 30%. Fewer overtime hours can mean a lighter load or a lighter paycheck, and an hours figure will not tell you which.
What Korea's pension's 107% return really measures
Korea's national pension reports a domestic-stock return of 107% for the first half of 2026. That number is real — and it does not mean Korean stocks doubled. Its label, money-weighted and provisional, is the whole story.
Taxes and transfers nearly halve Korea's income gap
Korea's income gap before tax barely moved in seven years — the top-to-bottom ratio sat near 11. After taxes and transfers it drops to about 5.8. The real story is the gap between market and disposable income, not either number alone.
Samsung Biologics raised 300x more, diluted 11x less
Samsung Biologics' ₩3.00tn rights issue diluted shareholders 4.7%. PhionX raised 300 times less — and diluted 53.8%, eleven times more. Twenty-one filings this week show size doesn't predict dilution.
Korea's small merchants haven't felt neutral in years
A survey just put small-merchant sentiment at a year-high — 95.1 for September. But that is a hope, still below the neutral 100 — and on our reproducible series neither hope nor reality has touched 100 once in three years.
89 Sell calls in 12 years: Korean brokers' rating scale has no downside
Korean brokers issue tens of thousands of ratings and almost never say sell — 89 sell calls in twelve years. When a scale only points one way, what does a 'buy' actually tell you? We count the ratings and question the scale.
Women's workforce share: firm choice or sector mix?
Rank Korean firms by their share of women and apparel tops the list, heavy industry sits at the bottom. But that may sort sectors, not employers — the median listed firm is ~24% women. We show the spread, not the rank.
Korea's youth jobless rate fell from 9.8% to 6.1% — but why?
Korea's youth jobless rate fell from 9.8% in 2016 to 6.1% in 2025. A falling rate sounds like good news — but the same number falls whether young people find work or simply stop looking. One rate cannot tell the two apart.
Korea's import bill rose 18% — but rubber jumped 96% and sugar fell 12%
Korea's won-priced import index rose 18.4% over the year to July 2026 — on average. Behind it: synthetic rubber +96% and fuels near +77%, while sugar and dairy fell. The won moved everything alike; the spread is the goods.
Korea's "biggest company" ranking measures hope, not output
Korea's largest-firm ranking is by market capitalization — a priced bet on the future, not what a company makes, employs, or earns. We call it capital intensity, not productivity. Here is why the ranking misleads.
The Korean pay ranking everyone shares hides 3 things
A ranking of Korea's best-paying employers circulates as one number per company. But a single figure buries the distribution, the gap, and the hours behind it. We report distributions, not averages — here is what it leaves out.
Korea's rich list doesn't measure Lee Jae-yong. It measures KOSPI.
Samsung's Lee Jae-yong topped Korea's stock-wealth ranking at ₩25.88tn on 2 January 2026 — up 117% in a year. The gain was the market, not the man. So what does a ranking that doubles on a rally actually measure?
Korea lists 2,767 stock lines — fewer than that are actual companies
Korea's stock market has 2,767 stock lines — but 115 are preferred shares (one company, two tickers) and 134 didn't trade today. The company count is lower.
Korea's trade balance, in one page: who it sells to, who it pays
Korea's trade in one page: it sells to two giants — the US and China, each about a fifth of exports — and buys energy and machines from everyone else.
Only 12 of Korea's 160 stock indices are up since the June peak
The KOSPI is up 125% in two years — a headline that hides the turn. From the 22 June peak, 148 of 160 indices have fallen, the median down 19.3%. The rally was chips; the correction is everything else. As of 3 Aug 2026. Not advice.
Korea's ten biggest trade deficits are oil, gas, and machinery
Rank Korea's biggest trade deficits and nine of the ten sell energy or machines. The tenth sells copper. Oil, gas, and machinery are the import bill.
Korea's 3-year/10-year bond spread stayed positive and widened a little over two weeks
Over nine trading days to 2026-08-21, the gap between Korea's 10-year and 3-year government bond yields ran 0.46 to 0.60 points, ending near 0.55 — never inverted. It widened from the long end: the 10-year rose, the 3-year held. Not advice.
Six bonds were 90% of a day's Korean bond trading
Korea's listed bond market has a price on hundreds of issues but trades almost none of them. On 2026-08-21, six bonds were 90% of all trading value, and government benchmarks were 95%. It held that way every day we measured. Not advice.
One in twenty listed Korean stocks didn't trade a single share
Korea's market is a barbell. On both days we've measured, two stocks were about half of all trading while roughly one in twenty listed issues traded nothing at all. A crowded head, a silent tail. Not advice.
Four stocks are half of Korea's entire stock market
Of 2,764 listed companies, the four biggest are 52% of all market value and the top ten are 60%. Samsung alone is a quarter. Meanwhile 1,822 KOSDAQ names together are just 7%. Korea's market is a few giants and a very long tail. Not advice.
The won, not the goods, drove much of Korea's imported inflation
Over the year to July 2026 Korea's import prices rose 18.4% in won but only 11.1% in contract currency. The 7-point gap is the exchange rate, not dearer goods. A March commodity spike lifted all gauges, then partly eased. Not advice.
KOSDAQ is 7% of the market's value but 16% of its trading
Value and trading are two different maps. KOSDAQ holds 7% of Korea's market cap yet did 16% of one day's trading — its shares turn over more than twice as fast as KOSPI's. And 137 listed companies didn't trade at all. Not advice.
Korea is quietly moving onto floating rates — and companies are moving fastest
Over the year to June 2026 the fixed-rate share of won bank loans fell for every borrower: companies 39% to 31%, households 47% to 44%, mortgages 66% to 63%. More of the loan book now reprices when rates move. Not advice.
Diesel is draining off Korea's oil exchange — and the gap between its two order books isn't a spread
Diesel traded on the KRX oil market fell 23% from 2020 to 2025 while petrol held. And the 'premium' on its negotiated book over its competitive one is a few tenths of a percent that flips sign four days in ten. Not advice.
Korea's oil exchange traded half as much fuel in 2026, and its auction has gone quiet four days in five
Daily volume on KRX's diesel, petrol and kerosene markets has fallen sharply since April 2026 — down as much as 74% year-on-year for diesel — and the exchange's competitive auction increasingly prints no price at all.
Korea's producer prices rose 7.7% — its chip prices tripled
The headline producer price index barely moved. Underneath, chip prices rose 315% and memory 291% in a year while forest and vegetable prices fell 20-35%. The 7.7% average hides a violent split. Not advice.
Women are 57% of the workforce at Korea's apparel firms and 8% at its steelmakers
Across listed firms the median female share of staff is 24%. But it splits hard by sector — about 57% in apparel, film and retail, under 10% in steel, autos and construction. Where women work divides more than how many. Not advice.
Korea's leading indicator has climbed for a year. Its coincident gauge has barely moved.
Statistics Korea's leading cyclical index rose every month for a year, 100.0 to 105.7, yearly growth doubling to 8.8%. The coincident gauge — the here-and-now — sat flat near 100. The forward signal is loud, the present quiet. Not advice.
Korea's trade surplus comes from a handful of partners — and drains to a different set
Twelve months of customs data: Korea's goods surplus rests on the U.S., Hong Kong, Vietnam and Taiwan, and drains to where it buys energy and parts — Saudi Arabia, Japan, Australia. China, the biggest partner, nearly balances. Not advice.
Korea's market carries 20 times more value per worker in finance than in apparel
Divide a listed company's market value by its headcount and industries split hard: a finance worker carries a median 470m won, an apparel or car-parts worker about 20-30m — twentyfold apart. Capital intensity, not output. Not advice.
Five Korean firms filed share buybacks today. Only one is cancelling the shares.
Buyback plans worth up to about 18 billion won reached the regulator on a single day. But the step that actually shrinks the share count — cancellation — appears in just one of them, Fims. The rest keep the stock in the drawer. Not advice.
Women earn 75% of men's pay at low-paying Korean firms, 70% at the highest-paying
Rank listed companies by average pay and the gender gap widens as you climb. Firms paying under 50m won a head give women 75% of men's; those over 120m give 70%. A high-paying employer comes with a steeper ladder. Not advice.
At most Korean listed companies the boss has outlasted the workforce — often several times over
In seven of ten listed firms the chief executive has served longer than the average employee has worked there. The median CEO's tenure is 2.1 times the staff's, and a third run to three times or more. Not advice.
Korea's listed CEOs: the median has run the company eleven years, and hundreds far longer
Across filings for 2,455 listed companies, the median chief executive has served 11 years; 696 have led two decades or more, 77 over forty. We flag and exclude 148 whose reported tenure predates the company itself. Not advice.
Across Korea's listed companies, women's average pay is 73% of men's
Companies file average pay by gender. Across 2,720 listed firms the median woman's pay is 73.2% of the median man's, and four in ten sit below 70%. It is mostly a gap in who holds which job, not pay for the same work. Not advice.
Korea's listed companies cluster in the capital even harder than its workers do
Of 2,364 listed companies that give a location, 85.7% are headquartered in the capital region — Seoul alone holds 46.4%. That is well above the 61.2% of enrolled workers there. The head offices concentrate more than the jobs. Not advice.
Seventy-seven companies hold half of Korea's listed-market jobs
Across 2,790 listed companies that disclose headcount, 1.87 million people work. The ten largest hold 22% of them, the top hundred 55%, and just 77 firms account for half. The median listed company reports 160 employees. Not advice.
Korea's listed market spreads across 61 industries by count, but its value sits in one
No industry is more than 11% of listed companies — electronics leads at 320 firms, then machinery, publishing and pharma. Yet our index work put electronics at 60% of KOSPI's value. The company roster is broad; the money is not. Not advice.
Most of Korea's listed companies are young; nine are older than the republic
The median listed company was incorporated 27 years ago, four in ten within the last 25. But nine reach back over a century — banks and drugmakers whose filed founding dates land near 1900, before the Republic of Korea. Not advice.
Korea's companies cluster in Seoul, but Seoul is where their staff leave fastest
Head offices pile into the capital, yet the capital keeps people least. Median tenure runs about 6 years in Seoul and Gyeonggi but past 9 in Gwangju, Busan and Ulsan. The further from Seoul, the longer people stay. Not advice.
Hiring more women does not narrow Korea's gender pay gap
You might expect firms with more women to pay women closer to men. They do not. From companies under 10% female to those over 60%, the median woman's pay holds near 73% of the man's — the gap barely moves with representation. Not advice.
A third of Korea's listed companies drew an analyst report this year — research piles on a short list
In our archive of 6,372 single-stock broker reports in 2026, 939 of 2,819 listed companies drew at least one. The busiest name drew 100; most drew none. It measures attention, not coverage, and is not advice.
Women hold about 7% of Korean listed-company board seats, and more than half of firms have none
Across 35,004 officers at Korea's listed companies, 7.2% are women. It splits by sector — 10.5% in health care, 4.2% in tech — and 56% of companies disclose no woman officer at all.
In Korea, the brokers that promise the most upside hit their targets the least
Score 19,495 broker targets against the stock a year on and a pattern appears: the more upside a house promised, the less often it was reached — a −0.46 correlation. Hanwha aimed for 45% and hit 17%; DB aimed 29% and hit 49%.
Korean brokers rate Buy 79.7% of the time, Sell just 0.06%
Across 6,372 broker reports in 2026 the market rated Buy on 79.7% and Sell on 0.06%. Of 13 houses that rated 200-plus reports, 10 issued no Sell at all. The Sell rate has sat near zero for over a decade.
Korea's sector leaders pay 1.2 to 1.43 times more than the rest
Split each sector into its market-cap leaders and the rest: the leaders pay 1.2 to 1.43 times more and mostly retain staff longer. But in heavy industry and finance they employ fewer women at the top. A size split, not a stock pick.
In Korea, finance pays about twice what tech does — and tech isn't even second
Take the median listed company's average pay in each sector. Finance sits at 116 million won a year, roughly double information technology's 58 million. IT holds half the market's value and pays in the middle of the pack.
Korean sector tenure vs. female share run a -0.68 correlation
Line up Korea's main listed sectors by how long people stay and by how many are women, and the two run opposite: a −0.68 correlation. Materials keeps people 8.6 years and is 13% women; health care keeps them 4.9 and is 40%.
Korea: company payroll bills ₩370,340/worker vs ₩280,520 at sole proprietors
The national pension bills every employer 9% of pay. Incorporated firms are billed 370,340 won per worker, sole proprietorships 280,520 — the 882,490 Koreans working for an individual owner sit a quarter below the 10.7 million at companies.
Korea's oil exchange prints two prices for the same fuel, and they disagree four days in ten
The KRX oil market quotes two prices per fuel — a competitive-auction average and a negotiated one. Over six years they disagree: the negotiated runs below the auction on 37–46% of days, and the kerosene auction goes dark one day in six.
Korean brokerages' price targets are met about one time in five
Score every target against the stock twelve months later. Across 19,495 rated reports, 21.6% of price targets were reached. Brokers promised 38% upside on average; the shares delivered 10%.
Health care is 40% women, heavy industry 11% — Korea's sector gender gap
Sort every listed company by our sector scheme and take the median female share. Health care is 40% women and finance 35%; heavy industry, materials and utilities sit near 11 to 14%. The gap is roughly four to one.
Shinhan's longest fractional-share list is mostly unbuyable
Shinhan posts Korea's longest fractional-share list, 2,450 stocks. But 2,022 of those are marked sell-only; only 428 can be bought. Line up all eight brokers and just 46 stocks are fraction-buyable everywhere.
Korea has 183,351 registered funds, and the factory that makes them is slowing down.
New fund registrations peaked in 2020 near 6,000 a year and have roughly halved since. What Korea launches is mostly derivatives and bonds — equity funds are one in ten. Among funds that name a country, America outnumbers China two to one.
Korea's import prices rose 9% in the seller's currency and 20% in won. The gap is the exchange rate.
Priced in the currency each contract is written in, Korea's imports cost 9.1% more over the year to June. In won they cost 19.7% more. The 33-point gap between the two indices is not the goods getting dearer — it is the won getting weaker.
Every kind of Korean bank loan turned more variable this year. Companies moved fastest.
The fixed-rate share of outstanding bank loans fell across corporates, households and mortgages over the year to June. Companies led it, dropping nearly eight points to 31%. Mortgages stayed the most fixed, at 63%.
Market value per employee ranges 3,100-fold across Korean firms. Almost all of it is an artifact.
Divide a company's market cap by its staff and the spread is absurd — 3,100 times. Remove the holding companies and pre-revenue biotech, and what survives is a 17-fold gap between industries: capital intensity, not what anyone produced.
Korea's convertibles create new shares at a 24% discount. Cash raises, 12%.
Measured against the market price on the day the shares are created, convertibles dilute at a 23.8% discount and cash raises at 12.5%. Control for the 456 companies that used both and the convertible still discounts 7.7 points deeper.
Korea's pension bill sorts 11.6 million workers into a pay ladder. Top to bottom, 2.3 times.
Every employer is billed 9% of a worker's pay for the national pension, up to a ceiling. Rank Korea's 41 biggest industries by that bill per head and imaging-equipment plants sit 2.3 times above employment agencies.
China is Korea's biggest trade partner, but almost none of its surplus
China is Korea's biggest partner both ways — and the two nearly cancel. Its balance is about 5% of the national surplus on a fifth of all trade. The surplus is earned from the US, Vietnam and Taiwan; the deficits are oil, gas and machinery.
Korea's provinces all borrow at the same price — the gaps are empty order books
Seventeen regional governments issue near-identical bonds. In the vintages that actually trade, the widest gap between any two provinces is 3.2 basis points — narrower than the day-to-day swing inside a single province's own bond.