Kiswire (002240) 🔎 In-depth
KOSPI · Price as of 2026-08-06 · Updated 2026-08-09
Kiswire, founded in 1945, is a specialist maker of wire rope and special wire rod. It buys steel wire rod, draws it thin and twists it, and sells value-added secondary-processed products such as wire rope for ships and cranes, PC steel wire for bridges and buildings, and tire cord and steel cord. In March 2026 it issued a corporate-value-enhancement plan targeting a payout ratio of 40%+ and a total shareholder-return ratio of 25%+, and it increased 2025 treasury-share purchases by 8.0% versus the prior year; the May 15 quarterly report confirmed a sharp Q1 net-profit jump. What stands out lately is that if core-business margin rises to follow the Q1 net-profit rebound and shareholder returns are actually executed, a P/B of 0.26x and a forward P/E of 12.31x become grounds for a re-valuation; but Q1 operating profit actually fell, so a core-margin recovery is still at the confirmation stage, and results are swayed by shipbuilding, construction, and auto end-demand.
This page organises public market and filing data for information purposes. It is not a recommendation to buy or sell, nor investment advice. Metrics labelled “forward” are our own unverified estimates. Please verify with the original DART filings and decide at your own responsibility.
30-second brief
Pulled directly from the computed values below — not a separately written opinion.
What do the SourceComputedEstimateReading tags mean?
Source filings and exchange data · Computed calculated from public data · Estimate our own unverified projection · Reading drafted automatically, then rule-checked. See AI & Automation.
Core valuation metric
This stock's effective sub-sector is “Steel & Metals” (Chemicals, Refining, Steel & Materials), a type typically read first through P/B.
Steel and metals swing hard with raw-material prices and downstream demand, so profits balloon in upturns and can flip to losses in downturns. Because earnings are so volatile, price-to-book (P/B) — the share price against the value of plant and assets — is the first lens.
Price against assets alone says little about where the cycle stands. Reading it together with price against this year's expected earnings shows how far profits have recovered.
This note explains how each sector is typically valued and is educational context only, not investment advice.
At-a-glance assessment financial health · growth · profitability · valuation
- Debt ratio, current ratio and interest burden all look healthy.
- Revenue rose 4.0% year over year, and the pace is quickening (3-year trend: mixed).
- Most recent quarter (Q1 2026) revenue was 2.2% lower than a year earlier.
- ROE is 1.3% (controlling-interest basis). It is above the sector average.
- Operating margin is 2.2%.
- A sector-metric and in-depth research verdict — see “Valuation vs peers” below for the basis.
Ownership & governance As of 2025-12-31
Largest shareholder Hong Seok-pyo 20.07% (individual)
Controlling bloc incl. related parties 67.8%
With the controlling bloc holding 68%, control is very secure but the free float is thin.
🔎 In-depth analysis Reading
Kiswire (KISWIRE), founded in 1945, is a specialist maker of wire rope and special wire rod. It buys steel raw material (wire rod), draws it thin and twists it, and sells value-added secondary-processed products. Its mainstays are wire rope used in ships, cranes, elevators, and mines; PC steel wire and strand (steel cords that pull and reinforce concrete) used in bridges and building structures; tire cord and steel cord that reinforce automobile tires; and various industrial hard-drawn wire. In other words, this is not integrated steelmaking that "melts iron" but a business that "processes drawn steel wire and sells it," so even within the same steel industry it differs in character from large blast-furnace makers like POSCO and Hyundai Steel. Revenue has a high export share, and through domestic and overseas subsidiaries it moves with the cycles of the auto, shipbuilding, and construction end-markets.
The latest close is ₩17,210 and the market capitalization is ₩464.7 billion. The price sits above its 20-day moving average (₩16,838) and below its 60-day moving average (₩18,532). Short-term and medium-term trends are diverging, so the direction is best read separately. The RSI (a supplementary indicator that gauges the strength of gains versus losses over the past 14 days on a 0-100 scale) is 49.6, a neutral level. The one-month change is -3.2%, the three-month change is -31.2%, and the position relative to the 52-week high is -36.7%. Relative strength versus the KOSPI is 17 (on a 1-99 scale, converted from returns against the index over the past year with more weight on recent performance; higher means stronger than the market). It is stronger than roughly 17% of all stocks. Over the past three months it lagged the index by 19.4%. Chart interpretation is best done alongside trading volume and the dates on which disclosures occur.
On a confirmed full-year (FY2025) basis, the P/E ratio (how many times one year's net profit the share price represents) is 48.36x, which looks higher than the industry median (17.9x). But this figure is inflated because last year's net profit was unusually small at ₩9.6 billion, so it is more accurate to read it as "last year's profit was at the bottom" than as "expensive." In fact, the forward P/E (a multiple based on the profit expected over the next year) that reflects this year's recovered earnings comes down to a level similar to or lower than peers such as Poongsan (12.6x). The P/B (how many times net asset value the share price represents) is 0.25x, less than half the industry median (0.57x)—a deeply discounted price relative to book net assets. ROE (how much is earned on equity in a year) is still low at 0.5%, but this is based on last year when profit was at the bottom, so it has room to rise as this year's profit recovers. Operating margin is 2.2% and the debt ratio (debt relative to equity) is 146.4%, both ordinary levels, while a current ratio of 261% means short-term payment ability is sound.
Over five years, revenue peaked at ₩2.1 trillion in 2022 after ₩1.7 trillion in 2021, then moved sideways in the ₩1.7-1.8 trillion range: ₩1.79 trillion in 2023, ₩1.74 trillion in 2024, and ₩1.81 trillion in 2025. Operating profit fell from ₩133.5 billion in 2022 to ₩26.1 billion in 2024, then rose again to ₩40.7 billion (+56.0%) in 2025, while net profit bottomed from ₩33.7 billion in 2024 to ₩9.6 billion in 2025. The inflection is clear this year: Q1 2026 revenue was essentially flat at ₩432.7 billion (-2.2%), but net profit surged +245.6% to ₩21.0 billion from ₩6.1 billion a year earlier, exceeding twice last year's full-year net profit in a single quarter. That said, in the same quarter operating profit was ₩7.0 billion (-14.8%), so the core-margin recovery is still slow—a point to watch alongside.
The most meaningful recent disclosure is the corporate-value-enhancement plan (voluntary disclosure) of March 27, 2026. The company set shareholder-return targets of a payout ratio of 40%+ or a total shareholder-return ratio (including treasury shares) of 25%+, plus an expansion of at least 10% over the five-year average treasury-share purchase amount, and stated that 2025 treasury-share purchases were ₩9.44 billion, up 8.0% from the prior year (₩8.75 billion). This should be distinguished as a target for the shareholder-return policy, not a revenue or profit plan. The same day, the AGM results and appointment of outside directors were disclosed. Later, the May 15 Q1 2026 quarterly report confirmed the net-profit surge, and on May 14 a largest-shareholder ownership-change report and an executive/major-shareholder ownership report were filed. The March 19 business report (Dec. 2025) disclosed confirmed annual results.
Starting with the strengths: at a P/B of 0.26x, the stock is deeply discounted to net assets, and meanwhile net profit rebounded sharply this year, so the P/E that looked high on last year's profit comes down to the 12x range (forward P/E 12.31) on a next-year basis, sitting at or below peers. On top of that, the corporate-value-enhancement plan formalizes a direction of stronger shareholder returns via dividends and buybacks, opening a channel for the cheaply traded asset value to be re-valued. There are points to weigh alongside: while Q1 net profit rose sharply, operating profit actually fell, so the core-margin recovery is still at the confirmation stage. And with a business structure swayed by shipbuilding, construction, and auto end-demand as well as by the exchange rate and wire-rod costs, the pace of earnings recovery can vary with end-demand. In short, if core-business margin rises to follow the Q1 net-profit rebound and shareholder returns are actually executed, the low P/B and the lowered forward P/E become grounds for a re-valuation; conversely, if end-demand turns down again, the pace of recovery could slow.
🔎 Valuation vs peers Inconclusive
The peer set prioritizes stocks close in business substance to wire rope and special wire rod, rather than large integrated steelmakers. Manho Rope & Wire is the most similar wire-rope specialist peer; Poongsan and POSCO Steeleon are the same primary-metals processing, and POSCO Holdings serves as a large-cap reference point for the industry. All figures are on-site (current-price) calculations.
| Peer | P/E | P/B | ROE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manho Rope & Wire | — | 0.89x | -1.88% |
| Poongsan | 15.96x | 1.00x | 7.82% |
| POSCO Steeleon | 16.25x | 0.72x | 3.59% |
| POSCO Holdings | 38.44x | 0.45x | 1.51% |
(a) Positioning versus peers: on P/B, at 0.27x it is more deeply discounted to net assets than the wire-rope peer Manho Rope & Wire (0.89x) and Poongsan and POSCO Steeleon (in the 0.8x range). (b) Premium/discount: this discount reflects low profitability (ROE 0.5%) and volatile earnings, so it is hard to call it outright undervalued. (c) Limits of the trailing P/E and forward grounds: with last year's net profit at the bottom, the confirmed P/E of 50.9x overstates the actual earnings power. Approximating seasonality from DART's confirmed quarterly results suggests room for 2026 net profit to recover (about ₩72.1 billion, a single-digit forward P/E), but this is an unverified approximation and whether the Q1 net-profit surge was a one-off has not been confirmed. Until a core-margin recovery and the annual persistence of net profit are confirmed, it is hard to conclude undervalued, fairly valued, or overvalued, so this is left Inconclusive.
Earnings outlook Estimate company-stated · verified
| Type | Period | Revenue | Operating profit | Net profit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Next quarter | Q2 2026 | ₩453.7 billion | ₩11.1 billion | ₩13.8 billion |
Price history Close · MA20 · MA60
The latest close is ₩17,210 and the market capitalization is ₩464.7 billion. The price sits above its 20-day moving average (₩16,838) and below its 60-day moving average (₩18,532). Short-term and medium-term trends are diverging, so the direction is best read separately. The RSI (a supplementary indicator that gauges the strength of gains versus losses over the past 14 days on a 0-100 scale) is 49.6, a neutral level. The one-month change is -3.2%, the three-month change is -31.2%, and the position relative to the 52-week high is -36.7%. Relative strength versus the KOSPI is 17 (on a 1-99 scale, converted from returns against the index over the past year with more weight on recent performance; higher means stronger than the market). It is stronger than roughly 17% of all stocks. Over the past three months it lagged the index by 19.4%. Chart interpretation is best done alongside trading volume and the dates on which disclosures occur.
Relative performance stock vs index · start = 100
Excess return vs index · 3M -19.40% / 6M -36.48% / 12M -51.20%
Key metrics Computed vs sector median
Valuation
The P/E of 48.36x is above the sector median (14.17x). The P/B of 0.25x is below the sector median (0.45x). That said, this P/E is based on last year's (trailing) results. With recent quarterly earnings up sharply, the trailing P/E can look higher than it really is, so a precise read is best done on this year's expected (forward) earnings.
Enterprise value (EV)
EV = market cap + net debt. It reflects cash and debt, so it captures the real cost of the whole business that market cap alone misses; lower multiples are cheaper relative to earnings or sales.
Intrinsic value (DCF estimate) Estimate
Model output — not a price target. This is what the formula returns under the assumptions below, not a view on where the share price should go.
DCF (discounted cash flow) estimate — discount rate 10.1%, initial growth 4.0%→terminal 2.0%, 10-yr forecast, free-cash-flow basis. A reference range that shifts materially with assumptions.
Profitability & financials
Return on equity (ROE) is 1.3%, above the sector average (1.0%). The operating margin is 2.2%. The debt ratio is 40.8%, so the financial structure is stable.
Growth FY2025 · annual report (consolidated)
| Item | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $1.3B | $1.2B | $1.3B | +4.00% ↑ faster |
| Operating profit | $39.6M | $18.3M | $28.6M | +55.98% ↑ faster |
| Net profit | $50.2M | $23.7M | $6.8M | -71.47% ↓ slower |
| 5-year | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $1.2B | $1.5B | $1.3B | $1.2B | $1.3B |
| Operating profit | $69.2M | $93.8M | $39.6M | $18.3M | $28.6M |
| Net profit | $91.2M | $56.9M | $50.2M | $23.7M | $6.8M |
| Revenue CAGR | 4-yr avg 1.70% | ||||
Revenue rose 4.0% year over year (2023 ₩1.8 trillion → 2024 ₩1.7 trillion → 2025 ₩1.8 trillion), and the three-year trend is 'mixed'. The pace of growth also quickened from the prior year. Operating profit rose 56.0% year over year. Profit is growing at an accelerating pace. Over the 5 years on record, revenue compound annual growth (CAGR) is 1.7%. The two-year revenue CAGR is 0.6%. In the most recent quarter (Q1 2026), revenue was 2.2% lower than the same period a year earlier.
Latest quarterly results Source Q1 2026 · vs year-ago
Technical indicators Computed
What stands out
- The balance sheet is stable in terms of debt and liquidity.
Points to watch
- The price is high versus peers, so expectations already appear priced in.
Recent news & events searched · sourced
- 2026-03-27FilingCorporate-value-enhancement plan (voluntary disclosure) — targeting a payout ratio of 40%+ or a total shareholder-return ratio of 25%+, and expanding treasury-share purchases by 10%+ over the five-year average. 2025 treasury-share purchases were ₩9.44 billion (+8.0% YoY).A policy disclosure that formalizes a stronger shareholder-return direction on a mid-term basis. It is not a revenue or profit target; execution and free cash flow are the keys. Source
- 2026-05-15EarningsQ1 2026 quarterly report — revenue ₩432.7 billion (-2.2%), operating profit ₩7.0 billion (-14.8%), net profit ₩21.0 billion (+245.6%).Short term, the net-profit rebound is confirmed but operating profit declined. Whether core-business margin recovers needs confirmation next quarter. Source
- 2026-03-19Earnings2025 business report (consolidated) — revenue ₩1.81 trillion (+4.0%), operating profit ₩40.7 billion (+56.0%), net profit ₩9.6 billion (-71.5%).Discloses confirmed annual results. Operating profit recovered, but net profit was at the bottom—the reason last year's P/E looks high. Source
- 2026-05-14FilingFiling of a largest-shareholder ownership-change report and an executive/major-shareholder ownership report.Material for checking governance and insider ownership changes. More for governance monitoring than short-term supply-demand. Source
Figure cross-check computed ↔ external
| Metric | Computed | External | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2026 net profit | ₩21.0 billion(+245.6% YoY) | ₩21.1 billion | Confirmed | link |
| Corporate-value-enhancement plan shareholder-return target | 98.0%(FY2025) | 40%+ 25%+, 5 +10% | Confirmed | link |
| FY2025 annual net profit | ₩9.6 billion(-71.5% YoY) | ₩9.6 billion | Confirmed | link |
| 2026 seasonality-approximated net profit | ₩72.1 billion | — | Unverified | link |
Recent filings Source
- 2026-05-29Corporate governance report
- 2026-05-15PeriodicQuarterly report
- 2026-05-14OwnershipLargest-shareholder ownership change report
- 2026-05-14OwnershipOfficers'/major-shareholders' holdings report
- 2026-05-14OwnershipOfficers'/major-shareholders' holdings report
- 2026-04-09OwnershipOfficers'/major-shareholders' holdings report
- 2026-04-09OwnershipOfficers'/major-shareholders' holdings report
- 2026-03-27Disclosure
- 2026-03-27Disclosure
- 2026-03-27Shareholders' meeting notice
- 2026-03-19PeriodicAnnual business report
- 2026-03-19Audit report
📖 Plain-language glossary — expand if you are new to this
- P/E
- How many times a year's net profit the price is worth (lower is cheaper relative to earnings). The P/E here is on trailing (last full-year) results; for companies whose earnings swing fast (memory chips and other cyclicals/high-growth), a forward P/E on this year's expected earnings is more accurate.
- P/B
- Price relative to net assets (equity). Around 1x means it trades near book value; below 1x means below book.
- P/S
- Price relative to a year's revenue — useful for growth companies with thin earnings.
- Net debt / EV
- Net debt = interest-bearing debt − cash. Negative means more cash than debt (net cash). EV (enterprise value) = market cap + net debt, closer to what it would cost to buy the whole business.
- EV/EBIT · EV/EBITDA · EV/Sales
- Enterprise value against operating profit (EBIT), EBITDA, or revenue. Unlike P/E these reflect debt and cash; lower is cheaper relative to earnings power or sales.
- FCF / FCF yield
- Free cash flow = operating cash − capex, the cash actually left over. FCF yield = FCF ÷ market cap; higher means more cash generated per unit of market value.
- Intrinsic value (DCF)
- Future free cash flow (or, for some capex-heavy but profitable names, forecast earnings) discounted to today to estimate per-share value. Because it shifts a lot with the discount-rate and growth assumptions, it is shown as a bear/base/bull range, and the basis and assumptions are disclosed in one line beneath it.
- ROE
- How much profit the company earns in a year on its equity (%). Higher means better returns on capital.
- EPS / BPS
- Earnings per share / net assets (book value) per share.
- Operating / net margin
- Profit left from the core business / final profit after tax and interest, per unit of revenue.
- Debt ratio
- Debt relative to equity (%). Higher means more reliance on borrowing (norms vary by sector).
- Current ratio
- Assets convertible to cash within a year against debt due within a year. Above 100% leaves some short-term headroom.
- Interest coverage
- How many times operating profit covers the interest owed. Below 1x means operating profit alone struggles to cover interest.
- Dividend yield / payout ratio
- The year's dividend as a % of today's price / the share of earnings paid out as dividends.
- Revenue CAGR
- Multi-year growth expressed as a single yearly average (compound annual growth rate).
- RSI (short-term signal)
- Whether recent price action is overheated or beaten down. Above 70 is overbought, below 30 oversold.
- MA20 / MA60 (moving averages)
- The 20- and 60-day average price. Price above them signals a firmer short-term trend.
- vs 52-week high
- How far below the past year's peak the price sits now (%).
All figures are for reference only; how they read varies by sector and over time.
Sources: Korea FSC market-price API (data.go.kr), OpenDART, KRX/KIND — public data only.
Bong Stocks presents public-data-based information for reference only. It is not investment advice and contains no target prices, ratings, or buy/sell recommendations. Verify independently before making any decision.