LG Corp is a pure holding company that owns and manages stakes in the LG Group's affiliates, earning from the brand-royalty fees and dividends its subsidiaries pay plus the leasing and services of its real-estate subsidiary D&O, so its value is determined by the market value of the stakes it holds in LG Electronics, LG Chem, LG H&H, LG Uplus, LG CNS, and others. In May it decided to cancel treasury shares and raised its minimum payout floor from 50% to 60% of separate adjusted net profit while introducing an interim dividend, and in late March it declared a cash dividend of ₩3,100 per share (a payout ratio of about 64.9%). What stands out lately is that its listed stakes alone are worth around ₩24 trillion while its market cap is ₩14.7 trillion, a discount of about 40%, and that low debt, a 3.2% dividend, and strong follow-through on shareholder returns are strengths; on the cautionary side, the holding-company discount can persist for a long time or widen further, and equity-method earnings swing widely with the cycles of the subsidiaries.
At-a-glance assessment financial health · growth · profitability · valuation
- For financial companies, debt and interest costs are large by the nature of the business, so the debt ratio and interest coverage cannot be read on the same yardstick as an ordinary company.
- Revenue rose 1.1% year over year, and the pace is quickening (3-year trend: mixed).
- Most recent quarter (Q1 2026) revenue was 7.0% lower than a year earlier.
- ROE is 2.6% (controlling-interest basis). It is below the sector average.
- Operating margin is 12.6%.
- Valued against the net asset value (NAV) of its listed holdings rather than a consolidated P/E — see the in-depth valuation for the detailed basis.
Ownership & governance As of 2017-12-31
Largest shareholder Koo Bon-moo 11.28% (individual)
Controlling bloc incl. related parties 36.77%
With the controlling bloc holding 37%, the ownership structure is stable.
Net asset value (NAV) assessment Fairly valued35% discount to NAV
💡 How to read a holding company · A holding company owns stakes in several subsidiaries. Its P/E swings with equity-method gains and losses on those stakes, so read it only as a rough guide. P/B is more meaningful because subsidiary stakes sit in equity, but book value carries them at low historical cost (so P/B looks higher than reality). The most accurate view is the price against the market value of those stakes (NAV) ↓
Valued against the net asset value (NAV) of its listed holdings rather than a consolidated P/E — see the in-depth valuation for the detailed basis.
Listed subsidiaries ownership
| LG Uplus | 38.25% |
| LG Electronics | 35.26% |
| LG H&H | 34.74% |
| LG Chem | 31.52% |
| LX International | 24.69% |
🔎 In-depth analysis
- LG Corp is not a company that makes and sells products directly; it is a pure holding company that owns and manages stakes in LG Group affiliates.
- The parent has three main revenue sources.
- First, brand-royalty fees (brand loyalty) that subsidiaries pay for using the "LG" brand; second, dividend income shared by subsidiaries such as LG Electronics, LG Chem, and LG Uplus; and third, leasing and service income from D&O, a wholly owned subsidiary that manages real estate and facilities.
- On a consolidated basis it books revenue of ₩7.3 trillion and net profit of ₩737.2 billion (2025), but much of that net profit is equity-method income that reflects subsidiaries' results in proportion to ownership, so it swings widely each quarter.
- In the end, LG Corp's value is determined less by what the parent earns directly and more by "which subsidiaries it holds and how much," and by the market value of those stakes.
- Its main listed subsidiaries are LG Electronics (about 33.7%), LG Chem (about 30%), LG H&H (about 30%), LG Uplus (about 37.7%), and LG CNS (about 46%).
- The recent closing price is ₩101,300 and the market cap is ₩15.3 trillion.
- The price sits below its 20-day line (₩103,905) and below its 60-day line (₩107,783).
- Trading below both the short- and mid-term moving averages, the trend is on the soft side.
- The RSI (a supporting gauge that compares upward and downward force over the past 14 days on a 0-100 scale) is 45.0, a neutral level.
- The one-month change is -6.8%, the three-month change is +15.6%, and the position versus the 52-week high is -38.9%.
- Relative strength versus KOSPI is 45 (on a 1-99 scale, calculated from returns against the index over the past year with more weight on recent performance; higher means stronger than the market).
- That places it in roughly the top 55% for strength among all stocks.
- Over the past three months it lagged the index by 11.1%.
- It helps to read the chart alongside trading volume and the dates of disclosures.
- The P/E (how many times one year's net profit the price is) is 21.19x and the P/B (how many times book net assets the price is) is 0.54x.
- For a holding company, though, these two figures should not be read at face value.
- The P/E looks high because much of net profit is equity-method income that reflects subsidiaries' results, and in 2025 some subsidiaries such as LG Chem and LG H&H were weak, so that income was depressed.
- When profit temporarily falls, the P/E automatically looks higher.
- The low P/B of 0.52x also involves an optical illusion.
- On the holding company's books (equity of ₩28.7 trillion), subsidiary stakes are carried low at their "historical purchase cost," so equity looks smaller than the actual market value, which makes the P/B look higher than it really is.
- In other words, the true undervaluation is larger than the P/B figure suggests.
- The finances are very stable.
- The debt ratio (debt relative to equity) is 12.7%, low even among holding companies, with an interest coverage ratio of 24x and a current ratio of 244%, leaving ample room.
- ROE (how much it earns in a year on equity) is 2.6%, which is low, but that is natural for a holding company sitting on a vast base of stakes rather than generating margins directly like an operating company.
- The dividend yield is 3.19% (₩3,100 per share), on the high side.
- The top line is essentially flat.
- Revenue moved between ₩6.9 trillion and ₩7.4 trillion over five years (+1.1% in 2025), while net profit fell from ₩2.57 trillion in 2021 to ₩0.57 trillion in 2024 before rebounding +28.3% to ₩0.74 trillion in 2025.
- This net-profit path reflects not a deterioration in LG Corp's business but the swings in equity-method income as subsidiaries' profits move through their cycles.
- Preliminary Q1 2026 net profit was ₩379 billion, -37.7% year on year, largely because weak results at some subsidiaries such as chemicals and household goods were reflected through the equity method, on top of an unusually high base in Q1 last year when dividends and profit recognition were concentrated.
- So simply multiplying this one quarter by four to estimate the year produces under- or overstated errors.
- Because future net profit moves widely and non-cash with the subsidiaries' earnings cycles, a holding company is more accurately viewed through the "value of its stakes (NAV)" than the profit multiple (P/E) of any single year.
- That said, the separate adjusted net profit the company uses as its dividend basis is anchored by brand fees and dividend income, so it is far more stable than equity-method income and forms the foundation for dividend funding.
- The core of recent flow is stronger shareholder returns.
- On May 22, LG Corp decided to cancel treasury common shares it had previously acquired (treasury-share cancellation reduces the share count and raises per-share value).
- On the dividend side, it raised the minimum payout floor against separate adjusted net profit, its dividend basis, from 50% to 60% and introduced an interim dividend, so that even if profit falls it has raised the dividend floor itself.
- In late March it declared a cash dividend (₩3,100 per share, a payout ratio of about 64.9%), and on April 24 it held an investor briefing along with a results preview.
- On May 7 it fair-disclosed preliminary Q1 consolidated results.
- On June 1 it filed the large-business-group status disclosure and the corporate governance report, fulfilling its regular group-governance disclosure obligations.
- On the subsidiary side, an in-licensing agreement (acquiring external rights to a new drug) for an anticancer candidate from the LG Chem group was disclosed on April 1.
- Such treasury-share cancellation and higher payout floors are moves aimed at narrowing the holding company's typical price discount.
- The key way to view LG is simple.
- Its true value lies not in that year's profit multiple but in the market value of the listed-subsidiary stakes it holds (NAV).
- The listed stakes alone add up to about ₩24 trillion, while the company's market cap is ₩14.7 trillion, so it trades roughly 40% below the value of those stakes.
- Add the stable cash flow from brand fees, the wholly owned real-estate subsidiary D&O, net-cash capacity, and the value of the LG CNS stake, and the actual discount is even larger.
- A discount of this size is at the wide end of the range common for holding companies (typically 30-50%), and the strengths are its low debt, high dividend (3.2%), and strong follow-through on shareholder returns through treasury-share cancellation and a higher payout floor (at least 60% of separate adjusted net profit).
- On the cautionary side, a holding-company discount can persist for a long time or widen further depending on subsidiaries' results and group events, and equity-method income swings widely with the subsidiaries' cycles (LG Electronics home appliances and auto components, LG Chem petrochemicals and battery materials, LG Uplus telecom), so looking at a single quarter's net profit alone is easy to misread.
- In short, LG is strong when it trades cheaply against the value of its stakes and its will to return capital is clear, and weak when weakness at key subsidiaries drags on or there is no catalyst to unwind the discount.
- Rather than declaring it over- or undervalued on a single P/E or P/B figure, tracking the changes in stake value and the discount rate is the right way to look at it.
🔎 Valuation vs peers Undervalued
A holding company is judged not against peer holding companies but by the market value of the stakes it holds (NAV) and the typical holding-company discount; the reference peer set is the listed subsidiaries that are the core of its value, plus a representative holding company whose value is driven by subsidiary stakes.
| Peer | P/E | P/B | ROE |
|---|---|---|---|
| LG Electronics | 30.18x | 1.21x | 4.02% |
| LG Chem | 0.00x | 0.55x | -5.54% |
| LG Uplus | 12.31x | 0.73x | 5.91% |
| LG CNS | 15.75x | 2.35x | 14.93% |
As a holding company, LG looks expensive on trailing P/E (20.35x) alone, but that is an optical illusion: 2025's weak subsidiary profits depressed equity-method income and temporarily shrank net profit. The proper yardstick for a holding company is not P/E but the market value of its stakes (NAV). The market value of its listed subsidiary stakes (LG Electronics, LG Chem, LG H&H, LG Uplus, LG CNS) adds up to about ₩24 trillion, while the company's market cap is ₩14.7 trillion, so on listed stakes alone it trades roughly 40% below. Add the brand-fee cash flow, the wholly owned real-estate subsidiary D&O, and net cash, and the effective discount is even larger. The 0.52x P/B also makes the undervaluation look smaller because subsidiary stakes are carried low at historical cost. It is the most discounted against net assets even among the peer set, and considering its low debt, high dividend, and follow-through on shareholder returns through a higher payout floor and treasury-share cancellation, it reads as undervalued against the assets it holds. That said, one must keep in mind that a holding-company discount can persist for a long time depending on subsidiaries' results and catalysts.
Price history Close · MA20 · MA60
The latest close is ₩101,300 and the market capitalization is ₩15.3 trillion. The price sits below its 20-day moving average (₩103,905) and below its 60-day moving average (₩107,783). It is under both its short- and medium-term moving averages, so the trend looks subdued. The RSI (a supplementary indicator that gauges the strength of gains versus losses over the past 14 days on a 0-100 scale) is 45.0, a neutral level. The one-month change is -6.8%, the three-month change is +15.6%, and the position relative to the 52-week high is -38.9%. Relative strength versus the KOSPI is 45 (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 45% of all stocks. Over the past three months it lagged the index by 11.1%. 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 -11.13% / 6M -25.42% / 12M -48.15%
Key metrics vs sector median
Valuation
The P/E of 21.19x is above the sector median (6.67x). The P/B of 0.54x is in line with the sector median (0.49x).
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)
DCF (discounted cash flow) estimate — discount rate 8.6%, 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 2.6%, below the sector average (5.0%). The operating margin is 12.6%. The debt ratio is 12.7%, but for financial firms deposits and insurance liabilities count as debt, so it cannot be read on the same yardstick as an ordinary company.
Growth FY2025 · annual report (consolidated)
| Item | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $4.9B | $4.8B | $4.8B | +1.07% ↑ faster |
| Operating profit | $1.1B | $640.8M | $604.6M | -5.65% ↑ faster |
| Net profit | $835.9M | $380.9M | $488.6M | +28.28% ↑ faster |
| 5-year | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $4.5B | $4.8B | $4.9B | $4.8B | $4.8B |
| Operating profit | $1.6B | $1.3B | $1.1B | $640.8M | $604.6M |
| Net profit | $1.7B | $1.3B | $835.9M | $380.9M | $488.6M |
| Revenue CAGR | 4-yr avg 1.40% | ||||
Revenue rose 1.1% year over year (2023 ₩7.4 trillion → 2024 ₩7.2 trillion → 2025 ₩7.3 trillion), and the three-year trend is 'mixed'. The pace of growth also quickened from the prior year. Operating profit fell 5.7% year over year. That said, the decline narrowed. Over the 5 years on record, revenue compound annual growth (CAGR) is 1.4%. The two-year revenue CAGR is -1.3%. In the most recent quarter (Q1 2026), revenue was 7.0% lower than the same period a year earlier.
Latest quarterly results Q1 2026 · vs year-ago
Technical indicators
What stands out
- The dividend yield, at 3.1%, is on the high side.
Points to watch
- The figures shown are based on the last annual report as of the writing date, so it is best to review the latest quarterly results and filings alongside them.
Recent news & events searched · sourced
- 2026-05-22UpdateDecision to cancel treasury common shares. A measure that raises shareholder value by reducing the share count, as part of a separately ongoing cancellation program.A signal of stronger shareholder returns over both the short and medium term, in the direction of narrowing the holding-company discount. Source
- 2026-05-07EarningsFair disclosure of preliminary Q1 2026 consolidated results. Net profit of ₩379 billion, down year on year as weak subsidiary results and a high Q1 base last year were reflected through the equity method.A short-term profit decline, but because the cause of the profit swing is the subsidiaries' cycle, the impact from an NAV perspective is limited. Source
- 2026-04-24IRInvestor briefing and results-disclosure preview. Explained results and the direction of shareholder returns to the market.A venue to confirm, over the medium term, the sustainability of the dividend and treasury-share policies. Source
- 2026-04-01FilingA subsidiary (LG Chem group) signed an in-licensing agreement for an anticancer drug candidate. Adds external drug rights to reinforce the pipeline.A medium- to long-term bio growth-driver aspect. It flows indirectly into the holding company's earnings through the equity method. Source
- 2026-03-31DividendCash dividend decision. ₩3,100 per share, a payout ratio of about 64.9%, a high level of shareholder returns.A stable cash-flow base underpinning a 3.19% dividend yield, positive over the medium term. Source
Figure cross-check computed ↔ external
| Metric | Computed | External | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2026 consolidated net profit | ₩379.0 billion | (2026-05-07) | Confirmed | link |
| Dividend per share (DPS) | ₩3,100 | (2026-03-31) | Confirmed | link |
| Treasury-share cancellation | 2026-05-22 | — | Confirmed | link |
| Value of listed stakes held (NAV) versus market cap | ₩15.3 trillion | ₩15.3 trillion | Unverified | link |
Recent filings
- 2026-06-01Large-business-group status disclosure
- 2026-06-01Corporate governance report
- 2026-06-01Large-business-group status disclosure
- 2026-06-01Large-business-group status disclosure
- 2026-05-22Disclosure
- 2026-05-15PeriodicQuarterly report
- 2026-05-07EarningsFair-disclosure notice
- 2026-04-30Disclosure
- 2026-04-24Disclosure
- 2026-04-24EarningsEarnings disclosure
- 2026-04-01Disclosure
- 2026-03-31DividendCash/stock dividend decision (amended)
📖 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.