Financial Services Commission Chairman Lee Eok-won delivers a congratulatory speech at the 2026 Corporate Value-Up Awards Ceremony and Seminar held at the Korea Exchange in Yeouido, Seoul, on the 27th. Yonhap News
As Korea’s Corporate Value-Up Program marks its second anniversary, capital market experts have identified strengthening disclosure quality as the next task for expanding the system. They argued that Value-Up disclosures should not be confined to large blue-chip stocks but should serve as a tool for market re-evaluation of undervalued companies, small- and mid-cap listed firms, and growth companies with significant information asymmetry.
The Korea Exchange (KRX) held a seminar at its Yeouido headquarters in Seoul on Thursday to commemorate the second anniversary of the Corporate Value-Up Program, discussing the program’s achievements and future tasks. About 200 people attended, including representatives from pension funds, asset management firms, and listed companies.
In a keynote presentation, Kim Jung-young, executive director of KRX’s Management Support Division, said the Corporate Value-Up Program had contributed to the re-evaluation of the stock market and the expansion of shareholder returns. As of the 21st, the number of companies that have disclosed corporate value-up plans rose to 733, accounting for approximately 87% of the KOSPI’s market capitalization. “The Value-Up index has risen 273.9% since its launch at the end of September 2024, outperforming the KOSPI’s gain over the same period by 72.5 percentage points, and the net asset value of related ETFs has grown to 4.2 trillion won,” Kim explained. The exchange plans to strengthen tailored support to boost participation by small- and mid-cap listed companies, and to push forward initiatives such as publishing low-PBR companies, governance improvement consulting, and supporting stewardship code compliance reviews.
Kang So-hyun, director at the Korea Capital Market Institute, analyzed that corporate value-up disclosures were serving as a positive signal to investors. According to Kang, disclosing companies showed approximately 1.5% higher returns than the market on the day of disclosure, and portfolios of disclosing companies also delivered better medium- to long-term performance than portfolios of non-disclosing companies with similar characteristics. The disclosure effect was particularly larger for smaller companies or those with insufficient analyst coverage and investor relations (IR) activities. “As simplified disclosures have increased, standard templates and correction criteria need to be established, and separate guidelines reflecting technology capabilities and market scalability are needed for companies listed under special listing rules,” Kang said.
In the panel discussion, participants argued that Value-Up disclosures should be developed beyond a simple voluntary participation system into a mechanism that facilitates communication between companies and investors. Kim Hak-kyun, head of the research center at Shinyoung Securities, said the issue of low-PBR companies should be analyzed in three dimensions: market misunderstanding, controlling shareholder-centered decision-making, and low capital efficiency. “The more mature a company is, the more it must explain to shareholders how it will use its retained capital,” he said. “Listed companies conduct business with shareholders’ money, so they have an obligation to clearly disclose their plans.”
The role of institutional investors was also emphasized. Lee Dong-sub, head of the trustee responsibility office at the National Pension Service (NPS), said institutional investors should expand engagement to require companies to participate in Value-Up disclosures. He also mentioned the need to link voting rights when disclosure content lacks substance or differs from actual implementation. “If we compare the disclosed content with the company’s actual implementation and find it is not properly carried out, we should be able to express our opinion on related agenda items such as director appointments or approval of financial statements,” Lee said.
Sohn Chang-wan, professor at Yonsei University Law School, emphasized board responsibility, citing the trend of household asset formation shifting from real estate to the stock market. He said that for stock price increases not to be a one-time phenomenon, capital allocation and governance improvements must take place together. “We need to think about how to steadily push the rising stock index upward, and examine what role the board should play in that process,” Sohn said.
Kim Ji-san, executive director at Kiwoom Securities, who participated in the discussion as the only listed company representative and an award recipient that day, said, “In the securities industry, there is a dilemma between expanding shareholder returns and reinforcing capital.” However, he said sustainability would increase only when corporate value enhancement becomes established as a board-level capital policy rather than a personal task of the chief executive officer (CEO) or chief financial officer (CFO). Kim and Kang both agreed on the direction of expanding disclosures, but emphasized that to avoid superficial disclosures, companies should establish goals investors can understand and a system for monitoring implementation.