Maeil Holdings (005990) 🔎 In-depth
KOSDAQ · Price as of 2026-08-06 · Updated 2026-08-09
Maeil Holdings is the holding company of the Maeil Dairies group. Rather than selling products itself, it owns stakes in its subsidiaries and manages the group, collecting the profits and dividends they generate, so the earnings of those subsidiaries drive its results. The flagship subsidiary is Maeil Dairies, one of Korea's leading dairy processors, which makes milk, fermented milk, formula and coffee drinks. In March 2026 the company disclosed a liquidity-provision agreement (with a subsequent correction), and in September 2025 it filed a report on the results of a treasury-share disposal; first-quarter 2026 operating profit rose +52% and net profit +94%, a quick earnings recovery. What stands out most recently is that its low asset-based valuation of a 0.3x P/B, combined with a falling forward P/E on the earnings rebound and steady results at the core subsidiary Maeil Dairies, gives it relatively limited downside; the caveat is that the value of its listed subsidiary stakes explains only about 56% of its market cap, leaving the remaining half in unlisted and standalone business value that outsiders find hard to price.
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 “Holding Companies”, a type typically read first through discount to NAV.
A holding company is less a maker of products than a vessel that holds stakes in several subsidiaries. So rather than an earnings multiple, the first lens is the discount to NAV — the market value against the summed worth of everything it owns.
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 0.3% year over year, and the pace is slowing (3-year trend: rising).
- Most recent quarter (Q1 2026) revenue was 4.2% higher than a year earlier.
- ROE is 9.6% (controlling-interest basis). It is above the sector average.
- Operating margin is 3.2%.
- 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 Kim Jung-wan 39.54% (individual)
Controlling bloc incl. related parties 68.4%
With the controlling bloc holding 68%, control is very secure but the free float is thin.
Net asset value (NAV) assessment
💡 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
| Maeil Dairies | 31.79% |
🔎 In-depth analysis Reading
Maeil Holdings is the holding company of the Maeil Dairies group. It is less a company that sells products directly than a structure that owns subsidiary stakes, manages the whole group, and collects the profits and dividends its subsidiaries generate. Its most important subsidiary is Maeil Dairies, which makes milk, fermented milk, formula and coffee drinks and ranks among the leaders in Korea's dairy-processing market. It also holds subsidiaries in food, dining and distribution, so the company's results ultimately hinge on how well Maeil Dairies and the other subsidiaries earn.
The latest close is ₩10,770 and the market capitalization is ₩143.2 billion. The price sits above its 20-day moving average (₩10,624) and below its 60-day moving average (₩10,781). 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 55.3, a neutral level. The one-month change is +5.0%, the three-month change is -5.1%, and the position relative to the 52-week high is -15.8%. Relative strength versus the KOSDAQ is 75 (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 75% of all stocks. Over the past three months it outpaced the index by 42.3%. Chart interpretation is best done alongside trading volume and the dates on which disclosures occur.
Recent annual revenue was ₩2.2 trillion, with operating profit of ₩64.0 billion and net profit of ₩32.5 billion. The operating margin of 2.9% is not high, as is typical of dairy and food processing, but ROE (how much is earned in a year on equity) of 7.5% beats the sector average. The debt ratio (debt against equity) is 131.6%, the current ratio (assets that can be turned to cash against debt due within a year) is 210.5%, and the interest coverage ratio (how many times operating profit can pay interest) is 6.4x, so the balance sheet is stable. On valuation, the P/E ratio (how many times a year's earnings the price is) is 4.41x and the P/B (how many times book value the price is) is 0.33x. That means it trades at about a third of book value, so the price is set low relative to asset value. More important is that earnings are rising quickly this year. The forward P/E reflecting the recovered earnings is far below that of peers of comparable size (S&D at 6.2x, Haitai Confectionery & Foods at 6.8x), placing it in undervalued territory on an earnings basis as well.
Revenue rose gently from ₩1.8 trillion in 2021 to ₩2.2 trillion in 2025, so the scale of the core business itself is stable. Operating profit was held down for a while by cost and promotion burdens, at ₩82.2 billion in 2023, ₩78.3 billion in 2024 and ₩64.0 billion in 2025, but the direction changed this year. In the first quarter of 2026 revenue rose +4.2% from a year earlier, operating profit +52.4% and net profit +94.3%. Revenue grew only in the single digits while earnings jumped sharply, a classic earnings-inflection phase in which the burden of raw milk and material costs eases and a firmer mix and pricing of higher-value products restore profitability. The full-year outlook this year is around ₩2.3 trillion in revenue, ₩79.2 billion in operating profit and ₩74.1 billion in net profit, a picture in which the earnings recovery confirmed in the first quarter carries through the year. The forward P/E reflecting these earnings can be read as a signal that the current price captures very little of the recovering profits.
On March 24, 2026 there was a disclosure of a liquidity-provision agreement (with a subsequent correction). Because the contract amount and term, and whether the deal is one-off or recurring, affect mid-term revenue recognition, it is worth checking the original terms. On September 22, 2025 a report on the results of a treasury-share disposal was filed. A treasury-share disposal affects the share count and cash flow, so reading it alongside earnings strength and cash flow makes the interpretation clearer.
This is a stock with clear strengths. A low P/B of 0.3x makes it cheap against assets, and with first-quarter operating profit up +52% and net profit up +94% this year, earnings are recovering quickly and the forward P/E has come down. The core subsidiary Maeil Dairies is also undervalued on a forward P/E and posting solid results, so across the group the downside is relatively limited. That said, the value of the listed subsidiary stakes the company holds explains only about 56% of the current market cap, with the remaining half in unlisted subsidiaries and standalone business value that outsiders find hard to price precisely, and that is worth bearing in mind. In short, the undervaluation looks compelling when the earnings recovery carries through the year and the subsidiaries deliver; conversely, if raw-material prices rise again or the recovery lasts only a quarter, that appeal can fade.
🔎 Valuation vs peers Fairly valued
A set of food-sector companies of comparable market capitalization.
| Peer | P/E | P/B | ROE |
|---|---|---|---|
| S&D | 7.64x | 1.80x | 25.84% |
| Cosmax NBT | — | 3.05x | -34.00% |
| Haitai Confectionery & Foods | 6.90x | 0.52x | 7.28% |
We looked first at a public-data peer set of similar market cap within food. The current P/E ratio (how many times a year's earnings the price is) is 4.41x and the P/B (how many times book value the price is) is 0.33x. That said, smaller-cap names are heavily affected by earnings swings and financing disclosures, so we did not draw firm conclusions from last year's confirmed-results metrics alone. The outlook box is based on a DART seasonality approximation.
Earnings outlook Estimate company-stated · verified
| Type | Period | Revenue | Operating profit | Net profit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| This year | 2026 | ₩2.3 trillion | ₩79.2 billion | ₩74.1 billion |
| Next quarter | Q2 2026 | ₩567.0 billion | ₩21.1 billion | ₩19.0 billion |
Price history Close · MA20 · MA60
The latest close is ₩10,770 and the market capitalization is ₩143.2 billion. The price sits above its 20-day moving average (₩10,624) and below its 60-day moving average (₩10,781). 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 55.3, a neutral level. The one-month change is +5.0%, the three-month change is -5.1%, and the position relative to the 52-week high is -15.8%. Relative strength versus the KOSDAQ is 75 (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 75% of all stocks. Over the past three months it outpaced the index by 42.3%. 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 +42.32% / 6M +37.78% / 12M +1.00%
Key metrics Computed vs sector median
Valuation
The P/E of 4.41x is below the sector median (8.93x). The P/B of 0.33x is below the sector median (0.56x). Both metrics are low versus peers, so the price is not expensive relative to earnings and assets. 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.
Profitability & financials
Return on equity (ROE) is 9.6%, above the sector average (4.0%). The operating margin is 3.2%. The debt ratio is 132.0%, so the financial structure is moderate.
Growth FY2025 · annual report (consolidated)
| Item | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $1.5B | $1.5B | $1.5B | +0.28% ↓ slower |
| Operating profit | $57.8M | $55.0M | $44.9M | -18.27% ↓ slower |
| Net profit | $34.9M | $17.0M | $22.8M | +34.30% ↑ faster |
| 5-year | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $1.3B | $1.4B | $1.5B | $1.5B | $1.5B |
| Operating profit | $65.9M | $51.6M | $57.8M | $55.0M | $44.9M |
| Net profit | $31.9M | $4.6M | $34.9M | $17.0M | $22.8M |
| Revenue CAGR | 4-yr avg 5.00% | ||||
Revenue rose 0.3% year over year (2023 ₩2.1 trillion → 2024 ₩2.2 trillion → 2025 ₩2.2 trillion), and the three-year trend is 'rising'. That said, the pace of growth slowed from the prior year. Operating profit fell 18.3% year over year. The decline widened. Over the 5 years on record, revenue compound annual growth (CAGR) is 5.0%. The two-year revenue CAGR is 1.1%. In the most recent quarter (Q1 2026), revenue was 4.2% higher than the same period a year earlier.
Latest quarterly results Source Q1 2026 · vs year-ago
Technical indicators Computed
What stands out
- P/E and P/B are both low versus peers, so the price looks inexpensive relative to earnings and assets.
- The balance sheet is stable in terms of debt and liquidity.
Points to watch
- Revenue rose 0.3% year over year, and the pace is slowing (3-year trend: rising).
Recent news & events searched · sourced
- 2026-03-24Contract[Correction] Liquidity-provision agreement signed: check the detailed original termsThe contract amount and term are central to future revenue recognition. Whether it is a one-off or a repeatable deal shapes the mid-term interpretation. Source
- 2026-03-24ContractLiquidity-provision agreement signed: check the detailed original termsThe contract amount and term are central to future revenue recognition. Whether it is a one-off or a repeatable deal shapes the mid-term interpretation. Source
- 2025-09-22UpdateReport on the results of a treasury-share disposal: check the return termsThis disclosure concerns cash returns or a change in the share count. Check whether earnings strength and cash flow support it. Source
Figure cross-check computed ↔ external
| Metric | Computed | External | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Closing price | ₩10,770 | ₩10,770 | Confirmed | link |
| Latest quarterly results | revenue ₩557.6 billion, operating profit ₩18.0 billion | revenue ₩557.6 billion, operating profit ₩18.0 billion | Confirmed | link |
| Annual results | revenue ₩2.2 trillion, operating profit ₩64.0 billion | revenue ₩2.2 trillion, operating profit ₩64.0 billion | Confirmed | link |
| Original contract disclosure text | [amended] : see the filing for detailed terms | [amended] : see the filing for detailed terms | Confirmed | link |
| Original contract disclosure text | see the filing for detailed terms | see the filing for detailed terms | Confirmed | link |
| Original shareholder-return disclosure text | check the payout terms | check the payout terms | Confirmed | link |
| Outlook-box basis | DART | DART | Confirmed | link |
Recent filings Source
- 2026-05-15PeriodicQuarterly report
- 2026-04-24OwnershipOwnership-change filing
- 2026-04-14Merger decision (amended)
- 2026-04-14Material-fact report (amended)
- 2026-03-27Disclosure
- 2026-03-27Shareholders' meeting notice
- 2026-03-24Supply contract disclosure (amended)
- 2026-03-24Supply contract disclosure
- 2026-03-19PeriodicAnnual business report
- 2026-03-19Audit report
- 2026-03-19Audit report
- 2026-03-12Shareholders' meeting notice
📖 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.