SK Square Achieves Record Quarterly Operating Profit of 8.28 Trillion Won in Q1 Thanks to SK hynix

Kim Joungkyu: "Preparing New Investments in AI and Semiconductors"

SK Square announced on May 14 that it achieved a record-high quarterly operating profit of 8.2783 trillion won on a consolidated basis for the first quarter of this year. First-quarter revenue was 300.3 billion won, and net profit reached 8.3747 trillion won.

Operating profit and net profit increased by 400% and 419%, respectively, compared to the same period last year, driven by equity-method gains from SK hynix and improved profitability among its portfolio companies.

SK Square, which holds a 20.5% stake in SK hynix, benefited from SK hynix's strong performance, as SK hynix posted an operating profit of 37.6103 trillion won in the first quarter of this year.

As of the previous day's closing price, SK Square's market capitalization stood at approximately 157 trillion won, marking a nearly 15-fold increase compared to early January last year (10.6 trillion won), and nearly a threefold increase compared to early January this year (51.8 trillion won), making it the third-largest company by market capitalization on the KOSPI.

The "net asset value (NAV) discount rate," a key indicator for enhancing corporate value, is also showing improvement. The NAV discount rate measures the gap between the value of assets held by a holding company and its actual market capitalization. As of May 13, SK Square's discount rate was 46.6%, a significant decrease compared to the end of 2024 (65.7%) and the end of 2025 (51.5%).

Return on equity (ROE) and the price-to-book ratio (PBR) are both exceeding target levels. As of May 13, the PBR rose to about 4.3 times, and as of the end of March this year, ROE stood at 55.1%, far surpassing the cost of equity (COE) level of 15–20%.

The company is also continuing its shareholder return initiatives. SK Square plans to execute a total shareholder return of 310 billion won from this year through early next year. Last year, the company conducted a share buyback worth 200 billion won, and this year, it plans to further expand the scale of shareholder returns.

SK Square plans to continue new investments and portfolio rebalancing, focusing on the AI and semiconductor sectors going forward.

Kim Joungkyu, CEO of SK Square, said, "Throughout this year, we will focus on communicating more with shareholders and enhancing corporate value. We will innovate work using AI and prepare new investments in the AI and semiconductor sectors."

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