Even If Intops Liquidates Now, Over 100 Billion Won Would Remain... Why Is the Second-Generation Owner Buying Up Shares? [Wealth Succession] Intops ①

Despite Earnings Recovery and Robotics Prospects, PBR Remains Below 0.5
CEO Kim Geunha Continues Steady Accumulation at Low Prices via Family-Owned Company

Intops Headquarters. Screenshot from Intops website

The prolonged undervaluation of Intops, a KOSDAQ-listed company, has been fueling growing discontent among its shareholders. Despite a surge in performance and the company's entry into growth sectors such as robotics, critics point out that Intops has yet to present proactive measures to enhance shareholder value. Amidst these concerns, it has been observed that the second-generation owner has been steadily acquiring shares.

According to the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system on June 5, Intops Chairman Kim Jaekyung donated 516,000 shares to his child, Kim Geunha, CEO of Intops, and 154,800 shares to Kim Sujin, out of his total 670,800 shares in February last year. With this donation, CEO Kim became the largest shareholder, holding a 17.24% stake in Intops.

Intops is a manufacturing specialist that produces IT devices, home appliances, and automotive parts, based on its ultra-precision mold and plastic injection molding technology. As a key partner to Samsung Electronics, its business supplying smartphone cases and internal and external components accounts for about 70% of total sales.

Intops remained profitable until 2024, but last year recorded a loss for the first time in 11 years. The deficit was attributed to weakened demand in the smartphone market and decreased yields from the new automated production line in Vietnam.

With the decline in performance, Intops' share price also fell. Chairman Kim took this opportunity to transfer shares to his children.

Since then, starting from the third quarter of last year, Intops returned to generating net profit. This turnaround was due to the gradual stabilization of yield rates at its Vietnamese plant and robust performance in the automotive parts division. Furthermore, as the company demonstrated its high-level manufacturing capability to mass-produce robots reliably, expectations began to rise in the market for its robot electronics manufacturing services (EMS) business.

Nevertheless, the stock price did not recover. In November last year, Intops fell to 13,000 won, its lowest point since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Although the price climbed to 24,950 won at the beginning of this year, it has recently dropped back to the 18,000 won range.

With the share price remaining sluggish, Intops' price-to-book ratio (PBR) is still below 0.5x. This means the market capitalization of Intops is less than half its net assets. In fact, Intops currently holds about 420 billion won in net cash and investment real estate, but its market capitalization is only around 320 billion won. Even if the company were liquidated right now, it could secure over 100 billion won more in cash.

As this undervaluation persists, shareholder dissatisfaction is erupting. One investor commented, "Even though Intops achieved results more than three times higher than market expectations in the first quarter of this year, it did not even issue a press release," adding, "The company merely included a share buyback plan in its business report as a formality, without disclosing any specific timetable or scale, which demonstrates a lack of effort to enhance corporate value."

Under these circumstances, CEO Kim has continued to purchase Intops shares through a company called Platel. Platel is a corporation in which CEO Kim holds a 94% stake, while Kim Yunseo and Kim Junseo each own 3%. Platel has lease agreements with Intops for facilities and receives around 1 billion won annually from Intops.

Platel made its first disclosure regarding shareholding in December last year. According to the disclosure, as of February 14 last year, Platel held 531,205 shares, and from December 11 last year to the 6th of last month, it acquired a total of 57,283 shares through dozens of transactions. The purchase price ranged from 15,000 won to 19,000 won per share.

Regarding this, a representative from Intops stated, "The CEO's share purchases also serve as a demonstration of responsible management and are one way to enhance shareholder value. We currently guarantee a minimum dividend of 200 won per share and operate a policy of increasing dividends in proportion to performance."

The representative added, "We are continuously discussing additional measures to return value to shareholders, and any decisions will be transparently disclosed through official announcements."

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