Investors Meet President Lee: "Ban Dual Listings, Strengthen Shareholder Returns"

President Lee Hosts “Meeting on Capital Market Stabilization and Normalization”

Yonhap News Agency

Securities industry officials and investors who met with President Lee Jaemyung requested a ban on dual listings and stronger shareholder return policies to help revalue the Korean stock market.

At the “Meeting on Capital Market Stabilization and Normalization” presided over by President Lee Jaemyung at the Blue House on the afternoon of March 18, Kim Dongwon, Head of the Research Center at KB Securities, stated, “Even as the KOSPI approaches the 6,000 level, it is still being discounted.”

He explained, “Of the total KOSPI market capitalization of 5,200 trillion won, the market capitalization of dually listed companies exceeds 1,000 trillion won, which is the highest in the world.” He claimed that this figure is 400 times higher than the United States, 10 times higher than China, 7 times higher than Taiwan, and 5 times higher than Japan.

He continued, “This year, Korea’s return on equity (ROE) is expected to be around 20%, similar to the United States and Taiwan, but the price-to-book ratio (PBR) is only 1.5 times, lower than the 4 times seen in those two countries. The reason lies in dual listings,” he emphasized. “If dual listings are fundamentally banned, valuations will naturally rise, increasing the market capitalization.”

Seok Jun, Head of Seoul at Morgan Stanley, proposed a policy to boost valuations in the Korean stock market by encouraging companies to acquire and cancel newly issued treasury shares in addition to existing treasury shares.

Park Sunyoung, Professor of Economics at Dongguk University, said, “The decline from the peak has been more limited than during past crises, and the market is showing a robust recovery, demonstrating the strong resilience of our capital market.” She cited a virtuous cycle between capital market policies and improving corporate performance as the background for this strength.

Lee Junyong, Vice Chairman of Mirae Asset Global Investments, noted that the domestic exchange-traded fund (ETF) market has grown to about 400 trillion won, and individual investors have continued net buying even after the war, observing the market from the sidelines. He pointed out that, unlike in the past, investor attitudes toward volatile market conditions have changed.

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