Korea Exchange Holds 'Corporate Value-Up' Meeting to Strengthen Communication

Attendance by Capital Market Related Organizations and Economic Groups
Integrated Page to be Released After Guideline Announcement in May

The Korea Exchange announced on the 22nd that it held a meeting with related capital market organizations and economic groups to support corporate value-up.

Jung Eun-bo, Chairman of the Korea Exchange (third from the left in the front row), and attendees from capital market-related organizations and economic groups are shouting "Fighting" and taking a commemorative photo.
[Photo by Korea Exchange]

The meeting was organized to gather opinions from capital market stakeholders and discuss active cooperation. Participants included seven organizations: ▲Korea Financial Investment Association ▲Korea ESG Standards Institute ▲Korea Economic Association ▲Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry ▲Capital Market Research Institute ▲Korea Listed Companies Association ▲KOSDAQ Association.

Jung Eun-bo, Chairman of the Korea Exchange, said, "Recently, while directly explaining corporate value-up support measures to major overseas institutions, I felt that the interest and expectations of global investors were greater than initially anticipated." He added, "Going forward, the Exchange will strengthen communication with listed companies and continue its support." He further stated, "The most important factor to meet these expectations is the active voluntary participation of companies. We will advance the announcement of the corporate value enhancement plan guidelines, which companies are waiting for, to May, earlier than planned. After today's meeting, we will continue to strengthen communication with companies through relay meetings with listed companies."

Seo Yoo-seok, Chairman of the Korea Financial Investment Association, said, "The Financial Investment Association also formed a Capital Market Value-Up Task Force on the 15th to actively participate in enhancing capital market value by resolving the Korea discount." He added, "Resolving the Korea discount is a significant task that revitalizes the entire economy beyond issues at the corporate and investor levels. Therefore, the financial investment industry will spare no effort to fully support the overall value-up of the capital market."

Shim In-sook, President of the Korea ESG Standards Institute, stated, "Through the revision of the Stewardship Code guidelines, institutional investors now have concrete grounds to review efforts by investee companies to enhance corporate value and use this in investment decisions." She added, "From the perspective of governance improvement, we will also consider reflecting whether companies have established and implemented corporate value enhancement plans when evaluating ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) ratings and selecting excellent companies at the Korea ESG Standards Institute."

Lee Sang-ho, Head of the Economic and Industrial Headquarters at the Korea Economic Association, said, "There is a positive atmosphere among companies regarding the currently announced corporate value-up program, which is based on autonomy rather than sanctions." He added, "When preparing specific guidelines, we will fully reflect corporate opinions to encourage many companies to participate in implementing corporate value enhancement plans."

Kang Seok-gu, Executive Director of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said, "We are currently collecting corporate opinions on the corporate value-up program." He added, "We will communicate necessary institutional and practical improvements to ensure that corporate value enhancement and shareholder value enhancement are achieved consistently, thereby supporting the development of the capital market."

Park Chang-gyun, Vice President of the Capital Market Research Institute, said, "Currently, the Capital Market Research Institute is studying cases of medium- to long-term corporate value enhancement efforts by overseas exchanges, mainly in Japan, and areas where domestic and foreign institutional investors can contribute to value-up." He added, "We will derive meaningful results to be reflected in the corporate value enhancement plan guidelines."

Jung Woo-yong, Policy Vice Chairman of the Korea Listed Companies Association, said, "Companies are very interested in the level of detail when preparing corporate value enhancement plans." He added, "We will act as a bridge with companies to find the appropriate level during the guideline formulation process."

Kang Wang-rak, Vice Chairman of the KOSDAQ Association, said, "We view positively that the corporate value-up support measures include various support for small and medium-sized listed companies." He added, "We hope that the unique characteristics of the KOSDAQ market will be fully considered during the implementation process." He continued, "We will actively cooperate in disclosure education and consulting support projects so that small and medium-sized listed companies can easily participate in the corporate value-up program."

The Exchange plans to hold meetings starting from the first week of April, right after the regular shareholders' meetings of companies with December fiscal year-ends, targeting leading companies with assets exceeding 10 trillion won. Subsequently, 'relay meetings with listed companies' will be conducted considering company size and region.

Additionally, the Exchange intends to prepare to finalize the guidelines earlier than originally planned to meet market expectations. An Exchange official stated, "After reviewing the draft guidelines and checking the development of the corporate value-up integrated page in April, we will discuss the collected opinions mainly at the second seminar." He added, "We plan to announce the final guidelines and open the integrated page in May."

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