Jeong Eun-bo Trying to Revive Fading Value-Up Spark... Heading to Hong Kong and Singapore

Roadshows Held in Hong Kong on the 18th and Singapore on the 20th
Accompanied by Two Global IBs... Exchange-Only Event

Jung Eun-bo, Chairman of the Korea Exchange, will visit Hong Kong and Singapore next week to hold investor relations (IR) presentations. This move appears to be an effort to revive interest in the Value-Up program after the enthusiasm subsided following the release of the final version of the Value-Up Program Guidelines. Financial Supervisory Service Governor Lee Bok-hyun will not accompany him, and the event will be organized solely by the Exchange.

Jung Eun-bo, Chairman of the Korea Exchange, held a press conference at the Korea Exchange on the 24th to mark his 100th day in office, under the theme "Korea Exchange's Core Strategies for Corporate Value-Up and Capital Market Level-Up." Chairman Jung is presenting the prepared content. Photo by Heo Young-han younghan@

According to the financial investment industry on the 12th, Chairman Jung Eun-bo will visit Hong Kong and Singapore next week to conduct IR events targeting overseas institutional investors. A roadshow is scheduled for the 18th in Hong Kong and the 20th in Singapore, accompanied by executives responsible for the Value-Up program and two global investment banks (IBs). This event is solely hosted by the Exchange. This is the third time Chairman Jung has traveled abroad to promote the Value-Up program. Previously, on May 14, he met with Hiromi Yamaji, CEO of Japan Exchange Group (JPX), at JPX’s Tokyo headquarters, and on May 16, he met with Financial Supervisory Service Governor Lee Bok-hyun and investors in New York.

Chairman Jung’s trip to Southeast Asia is intended to actively promote the Value-Up program to overseas institutional investors. Since the success of the Value-Up program depends on foreign investment and capital attraction, the plan is to inform overseas institutional investors about the improved domestic investment environment in Hong Kong and Singapore, where many of these investors have their headquarters, to attract them. A Korea Exchange official said, "Chairman Jung Eun-bo plans to stay in Hong Kong and Singapore throughout next week to meet with overseas institutional investors and actively promote the attractiveness of the Korean capital market and the Value-Up program."

There is also an intention to rekindle the fading spark of the Value-Up program. After the announcement of the Value-Up implementation, low price-to-book ratio (PBR) stocks, which had become a theme in the stock market, lost popularity following the release of the final version. Until the first half of this year, the KOSPI has been trapped in a box range around the 2700 level. In fact, the KOSPI index (as of the 10th) has risen only 1.2% compared to the beginning of the year (January 2). Compared to the Nasdaq index’s 16% increase during the same period, this is about one-thirteenth. Until last month, foreign investors bought large amounts of stocks expected to benefit from the Value-Up program, such as automobile and financial stocks, but they have been dumping disappointing shares, increasing downward pressure on the stock market.

Along with the Value-Up program, the current status of Korea’s short-selling system is also likely to become a topic of discussion. Despite the ban on short selling and the announcement of improvement measures, overseas investors remain wary of Korea’s financial authorities’ short-selling regulations. Recently, the financial authorities announced that they aim to shorten the development period as much as possible and complete the establishment of an illegal short-selling prevention IT system within 10 months. Currently, the Korea Exchange is responsible for building the short-selling IT system.

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