Ildong Pharmaceutical (249420) 🔎 In-depth
KOSPI · Price as of 2026-08-06 · Updated 2026-08-09
Ildong Pharmaceutical develops and sells both prescription drugs and over-the-counter medicines. Consumers know it best for household names like the Aronamin multivitamin line and the GQLab probiotics, but the larger share of revenue actually comes from prescription drugs supplied to hospitals and clinics and from an in-licensing/distribution business, with in-house new-drug R&D layered on top (2025 revenue was roughly ₩566.9 billion). The company swung from a large loss in 2023 to profit in 2025 and Q1 2026, and its ROE of 11.2% sits well above the peer median of 3.0%. In June 2026 it absorbed its new-drug subsidiary Unovia through a small-scale, no-new-shares merger (no dilution, no change of largest shareholder). What stands out lately is that while cash cows like Aronamin and GQLab plus the recovered earnings are clear strengths, much of the turnaround came from spinning R&D out into a subsidiary—so as Unovia is folded back in and new-drug development costs return to the parent's income statement, operating margin could come under pressure, and top-line revenue has been flat for five years.
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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 “Pharmaceuticals (profitable)” (Biotech & Pharmaceuticals), a type typically read first through P/E.
Established, profit-generating drugmakers earn fairly steady revenue from prescriptions and product sales, which makes their earnings reasonably predictable. That is why price-to-earnings (P/E) — the share price set against current net income — is the first lens here.
Price against earnings alone becomes unstable when earnings swing. Reading it together with price against assets helps gauge the downside.
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
- Assets that can be turned to cash within a year fall short of near-term liabilities (current ratio 99.3%).
- Revenue fell 7.8% year over year (3-year trend: mixed).
- Net profit swung from a loss a year earlier back into the black (a turnaround).
- Most recent quarter (Q1 2026) revenue was 4.4% higher than a year earlier.
- ROE is 13.9% (controlling-interest basis). It is above the sector average.
- Operating margin is 4.3%.
- P/B is high versus peers, a stretch on an asset basis.
Ownership & governance As of 2023-12-31
Largest shareholder Ildong Holdings 34.41% (corporate)
Controlling bloc incl. related parties 38.52%
With the controlling bloc holding 39%, the ownership structure is stable.
🔎 In-depth analysis Reading
Ildong Pharmaceutical makes and sells both prescription drugs that require a doctor's order and over-the-counter medicines bought directly at the pharmacy. The products most familiar to the general public are the Aronamin multivitamin family, the GQLab probiotics, and OTC items like stomach and digestive remedies, but the larger share of revenue comes from prescription drugs supplied to hospitals and clinics and from an in-licensing/distribution business that brings other drugmakers' products into Korea. In other words, the foundation of the business is steady sales of already-proven drugs rather than a single blockbuster, with in-house new-drug R&D added on to prepare for the future. Full-year 2025 revenue was about ₩566.9 billion, with both in-house manufacturing and the distribution business driving the company.
The latest close is ₩15,330 and the market capitalization is ₩485.0 billion. The price sits above its 20-day moving average (₩14,015) and below its 60-day moving average (₩17,561). 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 52.5, a neutral level. The one-month change is -4.5%, the three-month change is -37.8%, and the position relative to the 52-week high is -65.4%. Relative strength versus the KOSPI is 8 (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 7% of all stocks. Over the past three months it lagged the index by 23.5%. Chart interpretation is best done alongside trading volume and the dates on which disclosures occur.
On a confirmed full-year (2025) basis, the P/E ratio (how many times one year's net profit the share price represents) is 17.53x, the P/B (how many times net asset value the share price represents) is 1.96x, ROE (how much profit is earned on equity in a year) is 11.2%, and operating margin is 3.4%. An ROE of 11.2% is well above the peer median of 3.0%, so the efficiency of turning capital into profit is clearly good. The 3.4% operating margin looks thin because the lower-margin in-licensing/distribution business makes up a large share of sales—a natural figure stemming from the business mix. The debt ratio (debt relative to equity) is 232.5% and the current ratio (assets that can be turned into cash quickly versus debt due within a year) is 96.1%, so short-term liquidity is tight and is worth monitoring. When reading the P/E and P/B, it matters that these figures are all based on last year's confirmed profit and equity. For a company like this that has just swung from loss to profit, a forward view of where this year's earnings come from is closer to the real picture.
Over five years, revenue barely moved, from ₩560.1 billion in 2021 to ₩566.9 billion in 2025 (+0.3% annually), and 2025 revenue fell 7.8% from the prior year, so top-line growth is close to stalled. The clear change shows up in earnings instead. Operating profit had been in the red by hundreds of billions of won every year from 2021 to 2023 (-₩53.9 billion in 2023), then turned positive at +₩13.1 billion in 2024 and +₩19.5 billion in 2025, while net profit swung from a large loss of -₩78.9 billion in 2023 to a +₩27.7 billion profit in 2025. The key to this turnaround was the 2023 spin-off of the new-drug R&D organization into the subsidiary Unovia, which lifted enormous R&D costs off the parent's income statement, together with the steady cash generated by the core business—OTC drugs like Aronamin and GQLab plus prescription and distribution sales. In the most recent quarter, Q1 2026, the recovery continued with revenue of ₩142.0 billion (+4.4%), operating profit of ₩9.2 billion (+120.0%), and net profit of ₩7.4 billion. When looking at this year's earnings, though, it must be considered alongside the fact that once Unovia is re-absorbed in June 2026, the new-drug development costs that had been kept off the parent's books return to the parent's income statement. In other words, this is a phase where the core business's cash generation and the re-internalization of R&D intersect, so this year's forward earnings are better read as a balance of these two forces rather than simply extrapolated from last year's confirmed profit.
The most important recent disclosure is the April 2026 merger decision. Ildong Pharmaceutical is absorbing Unovia, its wholly owned new-drug development subsidiary, in a small-scale merger with no new shares issued, with a merger date of June 16, 2026. Because no new shares are issued, there is no dilution of existing shareholders and no change of largest shareholder, and being a small-scale merger, dissenting shareholders' appraisal rights are not granted. The purpose is to internalize the new-drug R&D pipeline into the parent and improve cost and management efficiency through organizational integration. Separately, a preliminary-results disclosure on May 13 and the quarterly report on May 15 confirmed strong Q1 2026 results, and February saw a cash-dividend and an investor-relations disclosure. The repeated "acquisition/disposal of shares in other entities" disclosures throughout 2025 can also be read as a sign that the business structure is being reorganized.
The strengths are clear: an earnings trajectory that has clearly turned from loss to profit (a large loss in 2023 to profit in 2025 and Q1 2026), an ROE of 11.2% well above the peer median of 3.0%, and a stable core business supported by steadily selling OTC drugs like Aronamin and GQLab plus in-licensing/distribution. The price also sits well below its 52-week high. There is a balancing point to weigh: because much of the turnaround came from spinning R&D out into a subsidiary, folding Unovia back in during June 2026 will bring new-drug development costs back onto the parent's income statement and could pressure operating margin to some degree. In addition, top-line revenue has been flat for five years, and the debt ratio and liquidity leave little room—points to keep watching. In short, the company is strong when the OTC cash cows and recovered earnings hold and the re-merged new-drug pipeline delivers results, and weaker in the condition where the core business's profit is not enough to offset R&D costs once they return to the parent. Rather than concluding either way, this is a case to judge by watching how these two axes interlock.
🔎 Valuation vs peers Overvalued
The peer set is traditional Korean pharmaceutical companies that earn steady revenue from prescription drugs, OTC medicines, and in-licensing/distribution rather than a single blockbuster (large biosimilar and CDMO players are excluded as their business character differs).
| Peer | P/E | P/B | ROE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yuhan Corporation | 31.93x | 2.71x | 9.06% |
| Daewoong Pharmaceutical | 7.57x | 1.45x | 19.65% |
| JW Pharmaceutical | 9.31x | 1.50x | 18.73% |
| Bukwang Pharmaceutical | 33.62x | 1.27x | 3.69% |
(a) Positioning: last year's confirmed P/E of 21.2x is clearly higher than traditional drugmakers with similar or better earnings power such as Daewoong Pharmaceutical (7.1x) and JW Pharmaceutical (10.0x), while high-P/E names like Yuhan and Bukwang Pharmaceutical often carry one-off or new-drug momentum that makes a simple comparison difficult. The P/B of 2.38x is also higher than most peers (1.2-1.7x). (b) Premium/discount: an ROE well above the peer average is a factor that justifies a premium, but a thin 3.4% operating margin and revenue flat for five years are discount factors. (c) Limits of trailing: this P/E is based on last year's confirmed profit, so once Unovia's re-merger in June 2026 brings R&D costs back to the parent, future earnings could change; a seasonality approximation from DART suggests room for this year's operating profit to exceed last year's (₩19.5 billion), but this is an unverified approximation rather than the company's official outlook. On balance, the multiple is higher than peers relative to profitability, so this reads as an Overvalued zone—though this is not a conclusion of cheap or expensive but a case where the assessment turns on the R&D cost reversal and whether earnings persist.
Earnings outlook Estimate company-stated · verified
| Type | Period | Revenue | Operating profit | Net profit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Next quarter | Q2 2026 | ₩145.8 billion | ₩4.5 billion | — |
Price history Close · MA20 · MA60
The latest close is ₩15,330 and the market capitalization is ₩485.0 billion. The price sits above its 20-day moving average (₩14,015) and below its 60-day moving average (₩17,561). 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 52.5, a neutral level. The one-month change is -4.5%, the three-month change is -37.8%, and the position relative to the 52-week high is -65.4%. Relative strength versus the KOSPI is 8 (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 7% of all stocks. Over the past three months it lagged the index by 23.5%. 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 -23.54% / 6M -66.76% / 12M -58.47%
Key metrics Computed vs sector median
Valuation
The P/E of 17.53x is above the sector median (15.02x). The P/B of 1.96x is above the sector median (1.10x). 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 13.9%, above the sector average (1.0%). The operating margin is 4.3%. The debt ratio is 130.0%, so the financial structure is moderate.
Growth FY2025 · annual report (consolidated)
| Item | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $422.0M | $432.0M | $398.3M | -7.81% ↓ slower |
| Operating profit | -$37.9M | $9.2M | $13.7M | +48.47% |
| Net profit | -$55.4M | -$3.2M | $19.4M | — |
| 5-year | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $393.5M | $448.0M | $422.0M | $432.0M | $398.3M |
| Operating profit | -$39.0M | -$51.6M | -$37.9M | $9.2M | $13.7M |
| Net profit | -$70.0M | -$99.5M | -$55.4M | -$3.2M | $19.4M |
| Revenue CAGR | 4-yr avg 0.30% | ||||
Revenue fell 7.8% year over year (2023 ₩600.8 billion → 2024 ₩614.9 billion → 2025 ₩566.9 billion), and the three-year trend is 'mixed'. The rate of decline widened from the prior year. Operating profit rose 48.5% year over year. Over the 5 years on record, revenue compound annual growth (CAGR) is 0.3%. The two-year revenue CAGR is -2.9%. In the most recent quarter (Q1 2026), revenue was 4.4% higher than the same period a year earlier.
Latest quarterly results Source Q1 2026 · vs year-ago
Technical indicators Computed
What stands out
- ROE of 13.9% points to solid profitability.
Points to watch
- Revenue fell 7.8% year over year (3-year trend: mixed).
- The price is high versus peers, so expectations already appear priced in.
Recent news & events searched · sourced
- 2026-04-13FilingThe board resolved to absorb its 100%-owned subsidiary Unovia (new-drug development) through a small-scale merger with no new shares issued (merger date 2026-06-16; Ildong Pharmaceutical as surviving entity). The aim is to internalize the new-drug R&D pipeline and improve management efficiency.With no new shares issued, there is no dilution or change of largest shareholder, but the previously separated new-drug R&D costs return to the parent's income statement, a mid-term variable that could pressure future operating margin. Source
- 2026-04-15FilingAmended attachment to the material-event report on the merger decision. The schedule is confirmed: merger contract date 2026-04-15, creditor objection period 5/15-6/15, planned merger registration date 2026-06-17.Confirms the merger process is proceeding on schedule. After the merger completes in mid-June, the parent's (separate) financial-statement structure changes rather than the consolidated one, so a shift in the basis must be accounted for when comparing next quarter's results. Source
- 2026-05-13EarningsFair-disclosure of preliminary Q1 2026 consolidated results: revenue ₩142.0 billion (+4.4% YoY), operating profit ₩9.2 billion (+120.0%), net profit ₩7.4 billion (up sharply from ₩0.5 billion a year earlier).A short-term positive as the earnings recovery is confirmed on a quarterly basis. Still, these are preliminary figures and the revenue growth rate itself is only a mild single digit. Source
- 2026-05-15UpdateFiling of the Q1 2026 quarterly report. Confirms the preliminary revenue, operating profit, and net profit as final figures.Official material for verifying preliminary versus confirmed results. A primary basis for reviewing financial and business conditions on a quarterly basis. Source
- 2026-02-11DividendCash/in-kind dividend decision (₩200 per share, payout ratio about 22.8%). Continuing dividends in line with the turnaround to profit.A signal of returning recovered earnings via dividends. That said, the dividend yield at the current price is about 1.1%, so the dividend itself is not especially attractive. Source
Figure cross-check computed ↔ external
| Metric | Computed | External | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2026 operating profit | ₩9.2 billion | 9,227 | Confirmed | link |
| Q1 2026 revenue | ₩142.0 billion | 141,997 | Confirmed | link |
| Unovia absorption merger date | 2026-06-16 | 2026 06 16, 2026 06 17, 1:0 | Confirmed | link |
| Latest closing price | ₩15,330 | — | Unverified | link |
| Seasonality-approximated full-year operating profit | approx. ₩82.9 billion | — | Unverified | link |
Recent filings Source
- 2026-06-04Disclosure
- 2026-05-29Corporate governance report
- 2026-05-15PeriodicQuarterly report
- 2026-05-13EarningsFair-disclosure notice
- 2026-05-11EarningsEarnings disclosure
- 2026-04-15Material-fact report (amended)
- 2026-04-14Disclosure
- 2026-04-13Material-fact report
- 2026-04-03OwnershipOfficers'/major-shareholders' holdings report
- 2026-03-26Shareholders' meeting notice
- 2026-03-26Disclosure
- 2026-03-18PeriodicAnnual business 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.