JL&K Announces 48 Billion KRW Paid-in and Free Share Capital Increase... "Pursuing Entry into the US Medical AI Market"

Medical AI’s first listed company, JLK (CEO Kim Dong-min), held a board meeting and announced on the 12th that it resolved to conduct a rights offering worth approximately 48 billion KRW and a 20% bonus issue.

JLK’s rights offering is the first since its listing and will proceed through a general public offering of unsubscribed shares after allocation to existing shareholders. A total of 5,133,698 new shares, equivalent to 31.7% of the total 16,195,712 shares, will be issued, with Korea Investment & Securities acting as the lead underwriter. The final issue price will be determined on September 20.

Shareholders participating in this rights offering will also be eligible to participate in a bonus issue, receiving an additional 0.2 shares (20%) per share held. The record date for the bonus issue is scheduled for October 8.

The company plans to use the funds raised through this rights offering for overseas market expansion, including the United States, by allocating them to ▲facility funds ▲operating funds ▲acquisition of securities of other corporations. In particular, JLK aims to focus on entering the U.S., the largest market in the medical AI sector, and get closer to achieving overseas sales of 500 billion KRW by 2028.

Currently, JLK is on the verge of entering the U.S. market with its AI solutions for stroke and prostate cancer in the second half of this year. It has already begun activating its U.S. subsidiary established locally and is in discussions to expand its sales network with major hub hospitals located across the western, central, and eastern regions of the U.S.

The company plans to rapidly increase its market share in the U.S. medical field by recruiting a large number of AI developers, service developers, clinical specialists, customer service experts, and sales professionals locally, as well as establishing an AI data center for global services.

JLK believes its solution technology surpasses competitors such as Viz-AI, Rapid-AI, and Heartflow. Especially compared to its peer group competitors with corporate values in the trillions of KRW, JLK is considered undervalued, and it expects its corporate value to be maximized through this global expansion.

According to market research firm Transparency Market Research, the global AI healthcare market is expected to grow from approximately 9 billion USD (about 11.5 trillion KRW) in 2022 to 187 billion USD (about 250 trillion KRW) by 2031. Among these, the U.S., which forms the largest market, holds a dominant position in the global AI healthcare market due to ▲favorable government policies ▲massive financial support ▲presence of IT-based companies such as IBM, Google, and Microsoft.

Industry experts predict that the expansion of FDA’s openness to AI-based medical device approvals and the increase in stroke patients due to the aging U.S. population will drive the spread of stroke AI, signaling a positive outlook for JLK’s entry into the U.S. market.

JLK CEO Kim Dong-min stated, “This capital increase was undertaken to fully enter the U.S. medical AI market. The secured funds will be invested in building a sales network and securing overseas business momentum, and will also contribute to strengthening our financial soundness.”

He added, “Since our solutions are ready for commercialization, we will focus on obtaining FDA approval for the stroke solution and devote all our capabilities to securing a leading position in the U.S. market to maximize corporate value.”

Meanwhile, last month, JLK announced the FDA approval of its prostate cancer AI solution, 'MediHub Prostate,' as a signal of its entry into the U.S. market. Additionally, it is currently undergoing FDA approval procedures for one stroke solution and plans to apply for approval of four additional stroke AI solutions within this year.

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