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SK Square (402340) 🔎 In-depth

KOSPI · Price as of 2026-08-06 · Updated 2026-08-09

Compiled and reviewed by Bing Bing · Figures are computed automatically from public filings and market data; the written analysis is drafted automatically and then rule-verified · Methodology · AI Disclosure · Report an error

SK Square is not a company that makes and markets products of its own. It is an investment holding company that holds stakes in semiconductor and information-technology affiliates — above all 146,100,000 shares of SK Hynix, about 20% — and works to grow their value. Of the ₩8.2783 trillion in consolidated first-quarter 2026 operating profit, ₩8.3172 trillion came from equity-method income pulled in from associates, and in April it approved an interim dividend of ₩1,550 per share and in July the cancellation of 34,388 treasury shares. The key point to watch is that against roughly ₩229 trillion of market value in its SK Hynix stake, market capitalization of ₩135.2573 trillion means the discount has widened to about 41%, still short of the company's stated goal of '30% or less by 2028', while with almost all profit coming from a single company, a downturn in memory would shake stake value and profit at the same time.

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

Earnings trend
revenue and profit declined.
Financials
financial metrics are around average.
Data as of
prices as of 2026-08-06, financials as of 2026 1분기.

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

Discount to NAV41.6% discount

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.

Forward P/E (current-year estimate)2.79x

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

Financial healthModerate
  • 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.
GrowthDeclining
  • Revenue fell 14.4% year over year (3-year trend: falling).
  • Most recent quarter (Q1 2026) revenue was 13.2% lower than a year earlier.
ProfitabilityStrong
  • ROE is 43.3% (controlling-interest basis). It is above the sector average.
  • Operating margin is 1129.0%.
ValuationUndervalued
  • 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 SK Inc. 32.14% (corporate)

Controlling bloc incl. related parties 32.16%

With the controlling bloc holding 32%, the ownership structure is stable.

Net asset value (NAV) assessment 42% 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

SK Hynix20.07%

🔎 In-depth analysis Reading

🏢Business

SK Square does not earn money by marketing products itself. It is an investment holding company that holds stakes in affiliates and works to grow their value. Its largest asset is its SK Hynix stake, recorded in the first-quarter 2026 report at 146,100,000 shares. Below that sit subsidiaries in commerce (11st), mobility (TMAP Mobility and FSK L&S) and platforms (SK Planet). Consolidated 2025 revenue of ₩1.4115 trillion comes mostly from those subsidiaries. Profit, however, is of an entirely different character. Consolidated first-quarter 2026 operating profit was ₩8.2783 trillion, while equity-method income pulled in from associates over the same period was ₩8.3172 trillion. Subtract one from the other and the operating result actually produced by the holding company itself and its consolidated subsidiaries is a loss of about ₩39.0 billion. In other words, the trillions of won of profit on the surface flowed almost entirely from SK Hynix. 'Equity-method income' here is an accounting treatment that pulls an associate's profit into one's own income statement in proportion to the stake held. It is profit recorded on the books only; actual cash arrives only when the affiliate pays a dividend. In the end this company's income statement is close to a one-fifth-scale copy of SK Hynix's results, and the other businesses are not yet contributing much to profit.

📈Price & chart

The latest close is ₩970,000 and the market capitalization is ₩128.0 trillion. The price sits below its 20-day moving average (₩1,127,650) and below its 60-day moving average (₩1,308,117). 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 41.4, a neutral level. The one-month change is -28.5%, the three-month change is -10.9%, and the position relative to the 52-week high is -50.8%. Relative strength versus the KOSPI is 87 (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 88% of all stocks. Over the past three months it outpaced the index by 5.0%. Chart interpretation is best done alongside trading volume and the dates on which disclosures occur.

📊Key metrics

For an investment holding company the first metric is neither the P/E ratio nor P/B, but how large a discount the share price carries against the net asset value (NAV) of the stakes it holds. Here is the calculation. The first-quarter 2026 report records SK Square's SK Hynix holding at 146,100,000 shares. Multiplying by SK Hynix's closing price of ₩1,567,000 on August 3, 2026 gives a stake value of about ₩228.9 trillion. SK Square's market capitalization on the same day was ₩135.2573 trillion, so only 59% of the value of the holding is being priced in — a discount of about 41%. Holding companies typically trade at discounts of 30-50%, so this sits near the middle of that range, and it is roughly 11 percentage points away from the 'NAV discount of 30% or less by 2028' target in the corporate value-up plan the company disclosed in November 2025. Moreover, this calculation leaves out the value of unlisted subsidiaries and net cash entirely, so the actual discount is fairly seen as somewhat larger. Now the general metrics. The P/E ratio (how many times one year of earnings the share price represents) is 14.51x and P/B (how many times book value) is 3.55x. The P/B looks high but should not be read literally. The SK Hynix stake was carried at ₩35.0227 trillion at the end of the first quarter, while its market value at the same date was ₩117.9027 trillion. When an asset is carried at less than a third of its actual value, P/B automatically looks high. ROE (how much is earned in a year on capital) is a high 31.9%, but that too is the result of pulling in an associate's profit and should not be read as the profitability of its own business. The finances themselves are solid. At the end of 2025 total borrowings were ₩112.8 billion against cash and equivalents of ₩1.3107 trillion, a net cash position with about ₩1.2 trillion more cash than debt. The current ratio (assets convertible to cash within a year against debts due within a year) is 231%. That said, the 10% debt ratio shown on this page and the financial-industry footnotes should not be taken at face value. This is not a company operating with deposits or insurance liabilities, and the actual borrowing burden is about 0.4% of shareholders' equity. On cash flow, expectations should be set low. Free cash flow (operating cash less capital expenditure) is ₩348.6 billion, only about 0.3% of current market capitalization, because what a holding company actually receives in cash is dividends remitted by affiliates rather than book equity-method income. For the same reason, EV (enterprise value, market capitalization plus net debt) divided by operating profit or revenue does not fit this company either, since most of the operating profit in the denominator is non-cash equity-method income and is detached from real cash generation. Profitable and in net cash, it is far from a situation where cash dries up and funding has to be raised in a hurry.

🚀Growth

Start with revenue. It fell for three straight years, from ₩2.0081 trillion in 2023 to ₩1.6499 trillion in 2024 and ₩1.4115 trillion in 2025, an average of -16.2% a year. For a holding company, though, falling revenue can mean something different from a weak business, because disposing of a subsidiary's shares removes that company's entire revenue. In June 2026, for instance, it disposed of its entire 45.78% stake in ONE Store, removing it from the consolidated group. Profit went the other way. Net profit swung from minus ₩1.2870 trillion in 2023 (a memory downturn) to ₩3.7140 trillion in 2024 and ₩8.8241 trillion in 2025. In the first quarter of 2026 it earned net profit of ₩8.3747 trillion in a single quarter (up 419% from the same period a year earlier), close to the full-year level of last year. The reason this year's profit is growing so much is clear. SK Hynix's first-quarter net profit was ₩40.3459 trillion, and the preliminary second-quarter results it disclosed on July 29 showed revenue of ₩79.3187 trillion, operating profit of ₩60.5426 trillion and net profit attributable to controlling shareholders of ₩93.8202 trillion. Cumulative first-half net profit attributable to controlling shareholders is ₩134.1504 trillion. Roughly 20% of that flows straight onto SK Square's income statement. That means the equity-method income to be reflected in the second quarter alone is more than double the first quarter's, and the first half alone far exceeds full-year 2025 profit. Industry conditions support this. Demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for AI servers is running ahead of supply, so prices and volumes are rising together, and HBM4 shipments increase in the second half. On July 22 the investment budget for the Cheongju P&T7 plant was raised to ₩7.0931 trillion, pointing toward wider capacity as well. Carrying this trend through the year produces a forward P/E (the P/E recalculated on this year's expected profit) of 14.51x — a level at which a single year's profit recovers a substantial part of market capitalization. Note that this multiple is based on the market capitalization at the time the outlook was fixed, so it moves as the share price moves. Two things should be held down, though. First, SK Hynix's second-quarter pre-tax profit (₩122.7084 trillion) exceeded operating profit (₩60.5426 trillion) by more than ₩62 trillion. That gain arose once outside the core business and will not repeat next quarter, which is why the equity-method contribution in the third quarter is likely to be noticeably smaller than in the second. Second, the July share issue lowered the ownership stake from 20.5% to 20.0%, so the share of profit reflected also falls slightly from the third quarter.

📰Recent news & filings

Recent developments run along three lines: a surge in profit at the core asset, shareholder returns actually being executed, and modest dilution. The biggest item is SK Hynix's preliminary second-quarter results, disclosed on July 29: operating profit of ₩60.5426 trillion and net profit attributable to controlling shareholders of ₩93.8202 trillion, which effectively fixes the size of the equity-method income SK Square will pull in. On the 22nd of the same month the construction budget for the Cheongju P&T7 plant was raised to ₩7.0931 trillion. At 5.88% of shareholders' equity, it is a decision to expand production capacity in response to AI memory demand. There was dilution too. On June 24 SK Hynix approved an issue of 17,790,000 new shares, structured as an issue of underlying shares to a US depositary and the listing of American Depositary Shares (ADS) on Nasdaq, completed on July 10 under the symbol SKHY. Shares outstanding rose from 712,702,365 before the issue to 730,492,365, diluting SK Square's stake by about 2.4%. Shareholder returns went beyond plans. On April 30 an interim dividend of ₩1,550 per share, ₩204.3 billion in total, was approved and paid on June 5; because the funds came from retained earnings created by reducing capital reserves, it is not subject to dividend income tax. For treasury shares, the company acquired 34,388 shares worth ₩40.0 billion between March 26 and June 25 and resolved on July 22 to cancel them all. It had also cancelled 128,729 shares on April 1. The backdrop to these returns is the corporate value-up plan disclosed on November 24, 2025. This review confirmed the target figures against the original filing: the company said it would lower the NAV discount to 30% or less by 2028, sustain an ROE above its cost of equity through 2026-2028, and maintain a P/B of at least 1x through 2028. Notably, the prior year's (2024) plan of a 'discount of 50% or less' was pulled down to '30% or less' in a single year. The execution plan includes an additional ₩100.0 billion of treasury-share purchases, cancellation of 450,000 treasury shares already held, and the appointment of additional outside directors. The portfolio has also been simplified: on June 29 it disposed of its entire 10,409,600-share (45.78%) stake in ONE Store, leaving one fewer subsidiary.

🧭Bottom line

This company is easy to misread if measured by the P/E ratio or P/B. Because most of its assets are listed shares, the right approach is to work out the net asset value (NAV) of the stakes it holds and then decide how much of a holding-company discount to apply. Valuing each business separately and adding them up (sum-of-the-parts, or SOTP) follows the same logic. Four things are worth noting. First, the discount is large. Against an SK Hynix stake worth about ₩228.9 trillion, market capitalization is ₩135.2573 trillion, a discount of about 41% — and unlisted subsidiaries and ₩1.2 trillion of net cash are not even reflected in that. Second, the asset behind the discount is itself priced low against its earnings. SK Hynix's forward P/E is around 3.7x, so this becomes a double-discount structure in which an already cheaply valued asset is taken on at a further 41% markdown. That is where the forward P/E of 2.79x comes from. Third, the company has set its own benchmarks, disclosing targets of a NAV discount of 30% or less and a P/B of at least 1x by 2028, pulled down in one step from the prior year's 50% or less. Fourth, that plan has not stayed on paper: it has been executed through treasury-share cancellations in April and July and an interim dividend. The cautions are equally clear. First, there is no diversification. Almost all profit comes from SK Hynix alone while the remaining subsidiaries together run an operating loss, so a downturn in memory would shrink stake value and equity-method income at once, with essentially no cushion. Second, second-quarter profit contains a one-off gain that exceeded operating profit by more than ₩62 trillion, so it should not be assumed to carry over; a smaller profit contribution in the third quarter than in the second is close to already scheduled. Third, the size of shareholder returns deserves a cool assessment: cancellations and the interim dividend this year total a little over ₩320.0 billion, about 0.3% of market capitalization. The direction is right, but that size alone is unlikely to close a 41% discount quickly. Finally, further share issues by SK Hynix would dilute the stake further; this Nasdaq listing already took it from 20.5% to 20.0%. In short, the structure gains momentum when a narrowing discount and the memory cycle are favourable together, and when the cycle turns, asset value and profit are shaken at the same time.

🔎 Valuation vs peers Undervalued

The set combines Korea's representative holding companies, where subsidiary stake value is the core of corporate value (SK Inc., LG Corp. and CJ Corporation), with SK Hynix, which accounts for effectively all of this company's asset value. For a holding company the right comparison is the net asset value (NAV) of the stakes held and the discount to it, rather than a P/E ratio based on consolidated results.

PeerP/EP/BROE
SK Hynix24.83x6.65x45.75%
SK Inc.23.10x1.25x26.75%
LG Corp.21.86x0.53x1.69%
CJ Corporation29.70x0.80x3.47%

(a) Position versus the peer set — on last year's results, SK Square's P/E of 15.33x is below SK Inc. at 23.74x, LG Corp. at 20.86x and CJ Corporation at 26.69x. Its P/B of 4.63x looks far above the other holding companies (LG Corp. at 0.54x, CJ Corporation at 0.73x), but that is an optical effect of carrying the SK Hynix stake at acquisition cost plus accumulated equity-method income rather than at market value. The carrying amount of ₩35.0227 trillion at the end of the first quarter against a market value of ₩117.9027 trillion shows the size of that gap. For a holding company, the NAV of the stakes held and the discount to it matter more than these two metrics. (b) Premium and discount — the market value of the SK Hynix stake is about ₩228.9 trillion while market capitalization is ₩135.2573 trillion, a discount of about 41%. Given that holding companies typically trade at discounts of 30-50%, that is within range, but factoring in that unlisted subsidiary value and ₩1.2 trillion of net cash are not reflected, and that the company itself has set a target of 30% or less by 2028, it is still on the wide side. On top of that, SK Hynix — the asset being discounted — is itself in a forward P/E range of 2.79x, making this a double-discount structure in which an already cheaply valued asset is taken on at a further 41% markdown. (c) Limits of the trailing figures and the basis for the forward ones — the P/E of 15.33x is based on confirmed 2025 results and does not capture the current situation. SK Hynix disclosed first-half 2026 net profit attributable to controlling shareholders of ₩134.1504 trillion, of which 20% is added as equity-method income, so the first half alone far exceeds full-year 2025 profit. With wider HBM4 shipments and investment in the new Cheongju plant pointing to continued profit in the second half, the full-year forward P/E works out at 2.95x, and cross-checking through the ratio of market capitalization to stake value gives a figure in the low 2x range. That is below peer holding companies and even below SK Hynix itself, which is why it is read as undervalued. Two things should be weighed alongside: second-quarter profit contains one-off non-operating gains, so excluding them lifts the multiple, and estimates could be cut quickly if memory conditions turn.

₩970,000 -13.32%
Market cap $89.9B

Price history Close · MA20 · MA60

Close MA20MA60

The latest close is ₩970,000 and the market capitalization is ₩128.0 trillion. The price sits below its 20-day moving average (₩1,127,650) and below its 60-day moving average (₩1,308,117). 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 41.4, a neutral level. The one-month change is -28.5%, the three-month change is -10.9%, and the position relative to the 52-week high is -50.8%. Relative strength versus the KOSPI is 87 (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 88% of all stocks. Over the past three months it outpaced the index by 5.0%. Chart interpretation is best done alongside trading volume and the dates on which disclosures occur.

Relative performance stock vs index · start = 100

87Relative strength vs KOSPI1–99 · last 12 months’ return vs the index, recency-weighted · higher = stronger than the marketTop 12% strength

Excess return vs index · 3M +4.99% / 6M +51.00% / 12M +238.77%

StockKOSPI

Key metrics Computed vs whole-market median

Valuation

P/E (trailing)14.51x
Forward P/E2.79x
P/B3.55x
Forward P/B1.56x
P/S90.69x
EPS₩66,871
BPS (book value/share)₩273,062
Dividend yield
DPS

The P/E of 14.51x is in line with the whole-market median (12.97x). The P/B of 3.55x is above the whole-market median (0.84x). 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)

Net debt-$841.5M
EV (enterprise value)$89.1B
EV/EBIT8.22x
EV/EBITDA14.28x
EV/Sales92.83x
FCF (free cash flow)$244.9M
FCF yield0.27%

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

ROE43.26%
Operating margin1129.03%
Net margin1141.10%
Debt ratio7.55%
Payout ratio

Return on equity (ROE) is 43.3%, above the whole-market average (3.0%). The operating margin is 1129.0%. The debt ratio is 7.5%, 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)

Item202320242025YoY
Revenue$1.4B$1.2B$991.6M-14.45% ↑ faster
Operating profit-$1.6B$2.8B$6.2B+124.39%
Net profit-$904.2M$2.6B$6.2B+137.59%
5-year20212022202320242025
Revenue$1.4B$1.2B$991.6M
Operating profit-$1.6B$2.8B$6.2B
Net profit-$904.2M$2.6B$6.2B
Revenue CAGR2-yr avg -16.16%

Revenue fell 14.4% year over year (2023 ₩2.0 trillion → 2024 ₩1.6 trillion → 2025 ₩1.4 trillion), and the three-year trend is 'falling'. That said, the rate of decline narrowed from the prior year. Operating profit rose 124.4% year over year. Over the 3 years on record, revenue compound annual growth (CAGR) is -16.2%. The two-year revenue CAGR is -16.2%. In the most recent quarter (Q1 2026), revenue was 13.2% lower than the same period a year earlier.

Latest quarterly results Source Q1 2026 · vs year-ago

Revenue$211.0M
Revenue YoY-13.18%
Operating profit$5.8B
Op. profit YoY+400.48%
Net profit$5.9B
Net profit YoY+419.44%

Technical indicators Computed

RSI (14)41.4
MA20₩1,127,650
MA60₩1,308,117
1-month-28.47%
3-month-10.93%
vs 52-wk high-50.76%

What stands out

  • ROE of 43.3% points to solid profitability.

Points to watch

  • Revenue fell 14.4% year over year (3-year trend: falling).

Recent news & events searched · sourced

Figure cross-check computed ↔ external

MetricComputedExternalStatusSource
Discount to the net asset value (NAV) of the stakes heldapprox. 42%approx. 41%Confirmedlink
SK Hynix shares held and ownership stakebase146,100,000, 2026 1 20.5%, 1 117₩902.7 billionConfirmedlink
Ownership stake after the new share issuebase712,702,365 + 17,790,000 = 730,492,365 → 146,100,000 ÷ 730,492,365 = 20.00%Confirmedlink
First-quarter 2026 net profit and where the profit comes fromnet profit 8₩374.7 billion · operating profit 8₩278.3 billionnet profit 8₩374.7 billion, 8₩317.2 billionConfirmedlink
Target figures in the corporate value-up planbase2028 NAV 30% , 2026~2028 ROE , 2028 PBR 1xConfirmedlink
Debt ratio110.4%2025 ₩112.8 billion, 1₩310.7 billionMismatchlink
Enterprise value (EV) and EV multiplesEV ₩200 trillion, EV/EBIT 22.7x135₩257.3 billion + -1₩197.9 billion = approx. ₩134 trillionMismatchlink
Cross-check of forward earningsPER 2.79xSK PER 3.7x × 59% = approx. 2.2xUnverified

Recent filings Source

📖 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.