Kolmar Holdings does not make products itself; it is a holding company that owns and controls stakes in affiliates such as Kolmar Korea, the No. 1 cosmetics ODM maker, and Kolmar BNH in health functional foods, so its income centers on trademark royalties, management fees and dividends from affiliates plus equity-method income, and its value hinges almost entirely on affiliate results. In May a surge in first-quarter 2026 operating profit was confirmed, and in June periodic governance disclosures such as the corporate governance report and the large business group status followed, so affiliate results and transparency disclosures have become the material that moves the share price. What stands out most is that, against its listed holdings, market cap trades at about a 57% discount to NAV, deeper than the usual holding-company discount (30-50%), while affiliate results have if anything risen and there is a 3.6% dividend yield; on the other side, parent revenue is flat to shrinking and the ROE is low, so if Kolmar Korea's K-beauty growth weakens or the discount stays entrenched for long, the holding's value wobbles with it.
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 fell 6.9% year over year (3-year trend: mixed).
- Most recent quarter (Q1 2026) revenue was 0.3% lower than a year earlier.
- ROE is 3.8% (controlling-interest basis). It is below the sector average.
- Operating margin is 7.6%.
- 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 2025-12-31
Largest shareholder Yoon Sang-hyun 31.75% (individual)
Controlling bloc incl. related parties 48.41%
With the controlling bloc holding 48%, the ownership structure is stable.
Net asset value (NAV) assessment Undervalued57% 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
| Kolmar BNH | 44.63% |
| Kolmar Korea | 26.31% |
🔎 In-depth analysis
- Kolmar Holdings is not a company that makes and sells products directly; it is a holding company that owns stakes in several affiliates and controls them.
- Its core affiliates are Kolmar Korea, the No.
- 1 cosmetics ODM maker (Original Development Manufacturing, developing and making cosmetics on behalf of brand owners), and Kolmar BNH, which makes health functional foods.
- Kolmar Korea also serves as an intermediate holding company beneath which sit the pharmaceuticals and health-beverage company HK inno.N (a stake of about 43%) and the cosmetics-container company Yonwoo (a 100% stake).
- Kolmar Holdings' own income centers on trademark royalties, management fees and dividends received from affiliates, plus accounting equity-method income (income recognized by taking in affiliate net profit in proportion to the stake held).
- In other words, this company's value hinges almost entirely on 'how well the affiliates it holds earn' rather than on parent operations.
- The latest close is ₩8,330 and market capitalization is ₩285.7 billion.
- The price sits above the 20-day line (₩8,093) and below the 60-day line (₩8,935).
- With the short- and medium-term trends diverging, the direction should be read separately.
- The RSI (an indicator that gauges upward versus downward momentum over the last 14 days on a 0-100 scale) is 49.5, a neutral level.
- The one-month change is +2.5%, the three-month change is -2.9%, and the price is -54.8% from its 52-week high.
- Relative strength against the KOSPI is 7 (on a 1-99 scale, computed from returns over the past year against the index with more weight on recent performance; higher means stronger than the market).
- Among all listed names it sits in roughly the top 94% by strength.
- Over the last three months it lagged the index by 24.1%.
- Chart readings are best viewed alongside trading volume and disclosure dates.
- The P/B (price relative to net assets) is 0.46x, less than half of net assets, and the dividend yield is 3.6% (₩270 per share), on the high side.
- The P/E (how many times one year's earnings the price is worth) is 12.19x, but this must be viewed together with the fact that it is on a trailing (already-past one-year) confirmed-earnings basis.
- As the growth section shows, in a phase where earnings bend upward, a multiple calculated on past earnings looks somewhat higher than the real earning power.
- In effect a holding company that owns the value of its affiliates trades at a much cheaper multiple than the affiliates themselves, which reads as an undervaluation signal where the share price is cheap relative to earnings and assets.
- The ROE (how much is earned in a year on equity) is low at 3.8%, but this is because, given the nature of a holding company, the parent on its own does not book much operating profit and affiliate value is buried in equity.
- The debt ratio (debt relative to equity) appears to be 210%, but where holding-company and financial characteristics are mixed in, accounting debt is recorded as large, so it is hard to view it by the same yardstick as ordinary manufacturing.
- Over five years revenue barely changed, from ₩674.0 billion to ₩630.0 billion, effectively flat (-1.7% a year), and 2025 revenue fell 6.9% versus the prior year.
- The tone of profit, by contrast, is clearly different.
- Operating profit rose for two straight years, from ₩16.9 billion in 2023 to ₩38.1 billion in 2024 and ₩47.7 billion in 2025, and net profit turned from losses in 2022-2023 to positive from 2024.
- Decisively, in the first quarter of 2026 consolidated operating profit reached ₩20.4 billion, up about 550% from ₩3.1 billion a year earlier.
- This is not a temporary accounting effect but the result of the core affiliate Kolmar Korea posting a record quarterly operating profit of ₩78.9 billion (+32% year on year) amid strong K-beauty demand, flowing straight through into the holding's consolidated results via equity-method income.
- In the same quarter net profit attributable to controlling shareholders was ₩27.8 billion, up sharply from about ₩0.4 billion a year earlier.
- With the No.
- 1 cosmetics ODM operator lifting utilization and share together amid the global spread of K-beauty, this year's estimated earnings standing above last year's confirmed earnings is a picture that is well supported.
- That is why the difference between the 'trailing (last-year confirmed) P/E' and the 'forward (this-year estimated) P/E' matters.
- The trailing P/E carries a past when earnings were low, while the forward carries a year in which affiliate results have risen, so with earnings now bending upward the forward basis shows the company's real value more accurately.
- Recent flow centers on periodic and governance disclosures and results disclosures.
- The May 12 fair disclosure of preliminary Q1 2026 consolidated and separate operating results confirmed the surge in operating profit, and the May 14 quarterly report reported those figures on a confirmed basis.
- On May 22 there was a disclosure of a material management matter at an affiliate (investment-judgment information), showing that the holding company's value is directly tied to affiliate developments.
- In June periodic governance disclosures such as the corporate governance report and the large business group status followed, and reports of changes in the largest shareholder and large holdings came up repeatedly.
- Rather than any separate large order win or one-off positive, affiliate results and governance-transparency disclosures are the key material that moves the share price.
- This name has fairly clear strengths.
- First, against the value of its listed holdings (Kolmar Korea, Kolmar BNH and others), market cap trades at about a 57% discount to NAV (net asset value), deeper than the usual holding-company discount (30-50%) and deeper even than the fellow holding company LG.
- And a 3.6% dividend yield offers a cash reward while waiting.
- Affiliate results have not bent down but have if anything risen, yet the holding trades cheaper than the affiliates themselves, so there is no clear weakness to justify this deep discount.
- On the other side, there are points to view together given its character.
- Parent revenue is flat to shrinking and the ROE is low, so its value is absolutely dependent on 'affiliate dependence'; if Kolmar Korea's K-beauty growth weakens, the holding's value wobbles with it.
- In sum, it is strong when affiliate results hold up and the holding discount narrows, and weak when Kolmar Korea's growth slows or the holding discount stays entrenched for long.
🔎 Valuation vs peers Undervalued
Because the operating substance differs, the comparison runs along two lines: (1) the core affiliates that are the source of value, Kolmar Korea and Kolmar BNH, and (2) the same-character holding company LG. For a holding company, an NAV/SOTP view of its held stakes is closer to the essence than consolidated P/E alone.
| Peer | P/E | P/B | ROE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kolmar Korea | 19.40x | 2.67x | 13.74% |
| Kolmar BNH | 0.00x | 0.69x | -6.41% |
| LG Corp | 21.19x | 0.54x | 2.57% |
Kolmar Holdings' value comes not from parent operations but from its held stakes in Kolmar Korea, Kolmar BNH and others, so viewing only the consolidated P/E misses the essence. The core affiliate Kolmar Korea is valued normally by the market at a P/E of 16.57x and a P/B of 2.28x, whereas the holding that owns that stake stands at just 0.45x P/B, about a 57% discount to NAV — deeper even than the fellow holding company LG (P/B 0.59x). Given that affiliate results have not bent down but rather rebounded sharply in the first quarter, there is no clear weakness to justify this deep discount. That said, holding-company discounts can structurally persist for a long time, and the trailing P/E on last year is a figure from before the earnings inflection, so it is hard to take at face value. Rather than declaring it 'cheap', it is appropriate to view it as a stretch valued relatively low against affiliate value.
Price history Close · MA20 · MA60
The latest close is ₩8,330 and the market capitalization is ₩285.7 billion. The price sits above its 20-day moving average (₩8,093) and below its 60-day moving average (₩8,935). 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 49.5, a neutral level. The one-month change is +2.5%, the three-month change is -2.9%, and the position relative to the 52-week high is -54.8%. Relative strength versus the KOSPI is 7 (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 6% of all stocks. Over the past three months it lagged the index by 24.1%. 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 -24.11% / 6M -46.32% / 12M -78.70%
Key metrics vs sector median
Valuation
The P/E of 12.19x is above the sector median (6.67x). The P/B of 0.46x is in line with the sector median (0.49x). 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)
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 3.8%, below the sector average (5.0%). The operating margin is 7.6%. The debt ratio is 210.5%, 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 | $422.4M | $448.5M | $417.6M | -6.88% ↓ slower |
| Operating profit | $11.2M | $25.3M | $31.6M | +25.25% ↓ slower |
| Net profit | -$2.5M | $16.3M | $15.5M | -4.61% |
| 5-year | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $446.7M | $430.7M | $422.4M | $448.5M | $417.6M |
| Operating profit | $58.6M | $21.9M | $11.2M | $25.3M | $31.6M |
| Net profit | $14.5M | -$4.0M | -$2.5M | $16.3M | $15.5M |
| Revenue CAGR | 4-yr avg -1.67% | ||||
Revenue fell 6.9% year over year (2023 ₩637.3 billion → 2024 ₩676.7 billion → 2025 ₩630.1 billion), and the three-year trend is 'mixed'. The rate of decline widened from the prior year. Operating profit rose 25.2% year over year. The pace of that profit growth is gradually easing. 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 0.3% lower than the same period a year earlier.
Latest quarterly results Q1 2026 · vs year-ago
Technical indicators
What stands out
- P/E and P/B are both low versus peers, so the price looks inexpensive relative to earnings and assets.
- The dividend yield, at 3.2%, is on the high side.
Points to watch
- Revenue fell 6.9% year over year (3-year trend: mixed).
Recent news & events searched · sourced
- 2026-05-12EarningsFair disclosure of preliminary Q1 2026 consolidated operating results — operating profit of about ₩20.4 billion, a sharp jump versus the same period last year, with revenue holding at last year's levelThe key short-term material, confirming earnings momentum as strong results at the affiliate Kolmar Korea flow through into the holding's consolidated profit. Source
- 2026-05-14FilingQ1 2026 quarterly report — formally reporting the holding-company business structure, affiliate stakes and quarterly resultsA periodic disclosure that reports the preliminary results on a confirmed basis and officially confirms the holding-and-affiliate structure. Source
- 2026-05-22FilingDisclosure of investment-judgment information on a material management matter at an affiliate — showing that the holding's value is directly tied to affiliate developmentsA medium-term material that re-confirms the structure in which, given a holding company's nature, affiliate events transfer to the parent's value. Source
- 2026-06-01FilingDisclosure of the corporate governance report and large business group status — periodically disclosing the holding-structure governance and group statusA periodic disclosure allowing governance transparency and group structure to be reviewed, bearing on the assessment of the holding-company discount. Source
Figure cross-check computed ↔ external
Recent filings
- 2026-06-05OwnershipOwnership-change filing
- 2026-06-01Large-business-group status disclosure
- 2026-06-01Corporate governance report
- 2026-06-01Large-business-group status disclosure
- 2026-05-22Disclosure
- 2026-05-14PeriodicQuarterly report
- 2026-05-12EarningsFair-disclosure notice
- 2026-05-12EarningsFair-disclosure notice
- 2026-05-11OwnershipOwnership-change filing
- 2026-04-28OwnershipLargest-shareholder ownership change report
- 2026-04-28OwnershipOwnership-change filing
- 2026-04-17OwnershipOwnership-change filing
📖 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.