낮은 주가 방치 ‘저PBR’ 기업 151곳…이마트·태광산업·현대제철 포함

The Korean Stock Exchange announced 151 domestic stocks that have low price-to-book ratio (PBR) as part of its effort to address undervaluation in the domestic stock market. These stocks will be marked with a 'low PBR' label in trading systems of each broker. A total of 96 companies in the domestic over-the-counter market and 55 companies in the Kospi market will be designated as low PBR companies on the second day of the announcement.

The PBR is calculated by dividing the market capitalization by the net assets, meaning a PBR lower than 1 indicates that the market value of a company's equity is less than its net assets. The 151 companies have an average PBR of around 0.25. Among the listed companies, 30 are in the consumer goods (essential and discretionary) sector in the OTC market, and 8 in the health care sector in the OTC market.

In the Kospi market, 45 are in the manufacturing and construction sector, and 4 in the financial sector. The information technology sector led in the Kospi market with 17 companies. The policy is not solely based on the low PBR but aims to encourage companies that have been underperforming for an extended period to improve their shareholders' value.

The financial regulator included this system among the measures to prevent actions that undermine the value of a company in its proposal for improving the quality of the capital market in March. Companies that do not take practical measures to improve their performance would be publicly disclosed under this policy. Initially, there were 185 companies meeting the low PBR criteria, but 22 companies were excluded from the announcement by submitting a plan to improve their PBR or company value as of March 22.

However, companies that have met the low PBR criteria for 6 years cannot be excluded. Of the 62 companies announced, 34 (19 in the OTC market and 15 in the Kospi market) met the exclusion criteria. The exchange will disclose the designated companies on the 'Value Up' page of the KIND system starting next week, with the 'low PBR' tag added to the securities mobile trading system and home trading system.