[Special Stock] Emart Soars Over 5% on Minimum Dividend Increase

Minimum Dividend of 2,500 KRW per Share Guaranteed

Emart is showing strong performance on the 11th. It is interpreted that buying demand has surged due to shareholder return measures such as raising the minimum dividend and share buyback cancellation.

As of 2:18 PM on the day, Emart's stock is trading at 65,900 KRW, up 5.27% compared to the previous trading day. Although it showed a downward trend in the middle of the session, the upward momentum has increased in the afternoon.

It appears that the announcement of the corporate value enhancement (value-up) plan influenced this. Emart decided to raise the minimum dividend per share by 25%, from the existing 2,000 KRW to 2,500 KRW per share. From this year until 2027, Emart shareholders will be guaranteed a minimum dividend of 2,500 KRW per share for three years. Emart plans to invest an additional 13.4 billion KRW annually to support this.

Along with this, the company plans to cancel more than 50% of its treasury shares by next year. Currently, Emart holds 1,087,466 treasury shares, which is 3.9% of the total shares. Of these, 560,000 shares will be canceled over two years.

Emart explained, "Raising the minimum dividend and canceling treasury shares are expressions of our commitment to maximize shareholder value through stock price appreciation."

On the same day, Emart disclosed that its consolidated operating profit for last year turned positive at 47.1 billion KRW. This is an increase of 94 billion KRW compared to the previous year. Despite a large one-time expense of 213.2 billion KRW due to a Supreme Court ruling related to ordinary wages, the company succeeded in a performance rebound through efforts to strengthen core business competitiveness. Sales amounted to 29.0209 trillion KRW, down 1.5% from the previous year, and a net loss of 573.4 billion KRW was recorded. Emart plans to focus on improving profitability through strengthening core business competitiveness this year as well.