Stock Value 3 Trillion... Who Is the Leading New Stock Billionaire This Year Surpassing Bang Junhyuk?

Newly Listed Stocks This Year, 9 Super Rich with Over 100 Billion Won

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyungsoo Park] This year, among the major shareholders of newly listed companies on the domestic stock market, there are nine stockholders whose stock value exceeds 100 billion KRW. This is the result of market funds pouring into the initial public offering (IPO) market, with promising companies such as SD Biosensor and Prestige Bio succeeding in going public one after another.

According to the Financial Supervisory Service on the 20th, Cho Young-sik, chairman and largest shareholder of SD Biosensor, which was listed on the 16th, holds about 33 million shares (31.56%). Based on the closing price of 59,100 KRW the previous day, the stock valuation amounts to 1.926 trillion KRW. Lee Hyo-geun, CEO of SD Biosensor, holds 4.5 million shares worth approximately 266.1 billion KRW. Chairman Cho also owns shares in Bionote and SDV Investment, which hold SD Biosensor shares. Including the value of indirectly held SD Biosensor shares, Chairman Cho’s total equity valuation exceeds 3 trillion KRW, surpassing the shareholding value of Bang Jun-hyuk, chairman of Netmarble’s board.

SD Biosensor is a developer of COVID-19 self-test kits. Standard Q, developed by SD Biosensor, uses the principle of antigen and antibody reactions to diagnose the presence or absence of disease within 10 to 30 minutes using a very small amount of specimen. In the first quarter of this year, it recorded sales of 1.1791 trillion KRW, operating profit of 576.3 billion KRW, and net profit of 437.5 billion KRW. It continued to grow based on technological competitiveness capable of testing even variant viruses.

Due to its large profit scale and high profit margin, its market capitalization exceeded 6 trillion KRW. It surpassed Seegene, which had previously held the top market capitalization in the diagnostics sector. Seegene is currently trading around a market capitalization of 4 trillion KRW.

[Graphic·Analysis] Photo by Im Hee-jin

Following Chairman Cho, the new listing company executive with a large stock valuation is Park So-yeon, CEO of Prestige BioPharma. The value of her holdings in Prestige BioPharma and Prestige BioLogics exceeds 560 billion KRW. CEO Park holds 15.29% of Prestige BioPharma and 16.3% of Prestige BioLogics. Additionally, she owns 50% of Mason Partners, the largest shareholder of Prestige BioPharma. Mason Partners is a nominal company jointly held by CEO Park So-yeon and Kim Jin-woo, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Prestige BioPharma, to strengthen management stability. The value of COO Kim Jin-woo’s holdings is similar to CEO Park’s, reaching 556 billion KRW.

Lee Hyun-yong, CEO of HPO, holds more than 70% of HPO shares. HPO’s market capitalization is 380 billion KRW, and Lee’s share valuation amounts to 268.1 billion KRW. Jeon Seong-ho, CEO of SoluM, holds 13.8% of shares valued at over 220 billion KRW.

Among newly listed companies this year, the highest increase rate compared to the public offering price was recorded by Giant Step’s CEO Ha Seung-bong and related party Kang Yeon-ju, whose share valuations are estimated at 170 billion KRW and 140 billion KRW, respectively. As expectations for benefits from the growth of the metaverse industry surged, Giant Step’s stock price rose more than eightfold from the public offering price of 11,000 KRW, closing at 95,000 KRW the previous day. Expanding its business areas with immersive new media content such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), interactive design, and holograms, there are high expectations that it will benefit in the metaverse era.

Including Lim Wook-bin, CEO of BioDine, whose share valuation is 119 billion KRW, there are nine individuals whose stock valuation exceeds 100 billion KRW among the largest shareholders and related parties of 41 companies newly listed on the KOSPI and KOSDAQ markets this year.

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