Every financial number on this site comes from DART (dart.fss.or.kr), the electronic disclosure system run by Korea's Financial Supervisory Service. It is the primary source, it is free, and an English interface exists at englishdart.fss.or.kr — though coverage there is thinner than the Korean original.
1. Which document
| Filing | Korean name | Contains |
|---|---|---|
| Annual report | 사업보고서 | Everything — business, financials, notes, ownership |
| Half-year report | 반기보고서 | Condensed six-month update |
| Quarterly report | 분기보고서 | Condensed quarterly update |
| Material event report | 주요사항보고서 | Capital raises, mergers, large contracts |
Start with the most recent annual report for the full picture, then layer the latest quarterly on top for current conditions. Material event reports are where the things that move prices appear first.
2. The four sections worth your time
Business overview (사업의 내용). Revenue by product line, major customers, raw materials, production capacity, market share. If you read only one section, read this one — knowing that a company derives 60% of revenue from one product changes how you read every ratio that follows.
Financial statements. Balance sheet, income statement, cash flow. Compare net income against operating cash flow: if profits rise while operating cash flow falls, look for growing receivables or inventory.
Notes to the financial statements. The longest section and the one with the most information per page — debt maturity schedules, related-party transactions, litigation, contingent liabilities, pledged assets. Risks that never appear in the headline numbers live here.
Shareholders (주주에 관한 사항). Largest shareholder and affiliates, minority shareholder share. This determines both free float and who actually decides things.
3. Three traps that catch foreign readers
Consolidated vs separate (연결 vs 별도). Korean companies file both. Consolidated includes subsidiaries; separate is the parent alone. For holding companies the two are wildly different. Confirm which one you are reading before comparing anything.
Controlling-interest net income (지배주주 순이익). Consolidated net income includes the share belonging to subsidiary minorities. Per-share figures must use the controlling-interest portion. Using total consolidated income inflates EPS — a common error in third-party data feeds covering Korea.
Audit opinion. Anything other than an unqualified opinion is a serious signal, as is an emphasis-of-matter paragraph on going concern. Korea suspends and delists on these grounds more readily than most developed markets.
4. What we do with it, and where we stop
We extract net income, equity, assets, liabilities, revenue and dividend data from these filings and compute ratios ourselves — flow items over the trailing four quarters, balance items at the latest quarter-end. Using only the last annual filing would leave ratios up to a year stale, which matters enormously in a market where earnings swing this hard.
We do not redistribute the raw filings, and we do not produce target prices or ratings. If a number here looks wrong, the corrections page explains how to report it — we check, fix, and keep a record.
Route map
- Annual report first, then the latest quarterly.
- Business overview → financial statements → notes → shareholders.
- Check consolidated vs separate, use controlling-interest income for per-share figures.
- Read the audit opinion before you read any multiple.
This page organises publicly available data for reference only. It is not investment advice and contains no buy/sell recommendations, target prices, or ratings. Any company named is an example used to explain the data, not a suggestion. Verify figures against the original filings before acting on anything.