409 Companies Disclosed Corporate Value Enhancement Plans Last Month... Majority Are High-Dividend Firms

99 Companies Canceled Treasury Shares
Culture of Respecting Shareholder Value Expands
'Value-Up Disclosure Consulting' to Be Provided

Last month, more than 400 companies newly disclosed their corporate value enhancement plans.

On the 6th, the KOSPI and other indexes were displayed on the electronic board of the dealing room at Hana Bank headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News.

According to the Korea Exchange on April 7, a total of 409 companies newly disclosed corporate value enhancement plans last month, with 405 of them classified as high-dividend companies.

Following the amendment of the Restriction of Special Taxation Act in December 2025, separate taxation on stock dividend income was introduced. Recently, a revised enforcement decree specifying the disclosure methods for high-dividend companies eligible for special taxation on dividend income was approved at a Cabinet meeting.

Going forward, high-dividend companies are now required to disclose their corporate value enhancement plans—including dividend income and dividend payout ratio for the previous fiscal year—by the day after the regular general shareholders' meeting at which profit dividends are resolved.

The cumulative number of companies that have issued value-up disclosures has reached 590. By market, there were 307 companies on the KOSPI and 283 companies on the KOSDAQ. During the same period, 84 companies also issued periodic disclosures that included compliance evaluations of previous disclosures. In March alone, 28 companies—including Kumho Petrochemical and S-Oil—submitted periodic disclosures.

As of the end of last month, the market capitalization share of companies making these main disclosures accounted for 72.2% of the total market. For KOSPI-listed companies, it represented 79.2% of the KOSPI’s total market capitalization. The value-up index, composed of these companies, significantly outperformed the KOSPI in terms of returns.

On March 31, the value-up index closed at 2,248.59, marking a 126.6% increase compared to its base date of September 30, 2024. Over the same period, the KOSPI rose by 94.8%, meaning the value-up index outperformed by 31.8 percentage points.

As of the end of last month, the total net assets of the 13 value-up exchange-traded funds (ETFs) reached 2.6 trillion won, a 439.4% increase compared to the initial establishment on November 4, 2024.

Meanwhile, 99 companies disclosed the cancellation of treasury shares last month, with major shareholder returns actively conducted by companies such as Samsung Electronics (5.3 trillion won), SK (4.8 trillion won), and Celltrion (1.7 trillion won).

The Korea Exchange stated, "Starting at the end of this month, we plan to provide 'value-up disclosure consulting' to help listed companies smoothly prepare their corporate value enhancement plans."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.