Coway Significantly Expands Shareholder Return Policy... Complete Cancellation of Treasury Shares

Coway announced on the 6th that it will significantly strengthen its shareholder return policy this year. On the same day, Coway decided to more than double its total shareholder return ratio from the existing 20% to 40% through cash dividends and the complete cancellation of treasury shares. The total shareholder return ratio is the percentage of net profit that a listed company returns to its investors in the form of dividends, treasury stock repurchases, and cancellations. Coway's total shareholder return ratio of 40% this year consists of 34% cash dividends and 6% treasury stock repurchases and cancellations.

The target for treasury stock cancellation is a total of 1,890,486 shares, accounting for 2.56%, and is scheduled to be canceled within this year. The shareholder return ratio level will be applied consistently for the next three years from 2025 to 2027. Additionally, the company plans to participate in a corporate value-up program to enhance the company's value within 2025. Detailed plans will be announced through a disclosure in the first quarter.

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The background for Coway's expansion of shareholder returns is the judgment that it has sufficiently secured financial soundness and business competitiveness since joining the Netmarble Group in 2020. Before joining the Netmarble Group, Coway continuously implemented shareholder return policies exceeding free cash flow, which significantly deteriorated financial soundness, leading to criticism that investments in core businesses and future growth engines were insufficient, weakening market competitiveness.

To overcome this, after joining the Netmarble Group, Coway strengthened investments to secure core businesses and future growth engines and implemented a capital allocation policy focused on restoring financial soundness by reducing the shareholder return level to about 20%. Since then, Coway has actively invested in R&D, marketing, and maximizing customer service satisfaction to achieve sustainable growth and strengthen core business competitiveness, focusing on securing global market competitiveness and enhancing the brand awareness of BEREX, striving to secure future growth engines.

As a result, despite the COVID-19 crisis and domestic and international environmental changes, Coway achieved sales of 1 trillion KRW for six consecutive quarters, securing financial soundness and business competitiveness. With the company's growth foundation stabilizing from 2024, Coway explained that it decided to expand the total shareholder return resources from the existing 20% of consolidated net income to 40% by 2027.

A Coway official said, “To enhance shareholder value, we plan to allocate within the scope of distributable profits by considering internal and external management environments to shareholder returns, strategic investments for sustainable growth, and maintaining financial structure soundness,” adding, “We will continue to pursue shareholder-friendly policies in various areas going forward.”

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