Sonid, a KOSDAQ-listed company (CEO Kevin Inseok Hwang, Junyoung Park), announced on the 24th that it received an 'unqualified' opinion in the external audit for the 2024 fiscal year. This audit result demonstrates that measures such as the change of the largest shareholder and improvement of the financial structure have led to substantial outcomes, and it is evaluated as proof of management stability and transparency externally.
In particular, Sonid's recovery of financial soundness is gaining momentum. As of the end of February, the total equity (shareholders' equity) was 67.91 billion KRW, an increase of about 16.4 billion KRW compared to 51.52 billion KRW at the end of last year.
Sonid completed the payment for a third-party allotment capital increase worth 8.4 billion KRW on the 12th and plans to secure a total cash liquidity of 18.96 billion KRW through the resale of convertible bonds (CB) worth 10.56 billion KRW by April. Through this, it is evaluated that short-term operating funds have been secured and the capacity for new business investment has also been established.
Debt reduction is also continuing. By February, Sonid completed the conversion of convertible bonds worth 8.01 billion KRW. Additionally, it signed a mandatory conversion contract for convertible bonds worth 7.045 billion KRW to further reduce debt.
At the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders held on the 19th, the agenda for the appointment of new directors was passed as originally proposed, establishing management stability and a systematic corporate operation foundation. At the first shareholders' meeting held after HL Robotics (21.76% stake) became the largest shareholder, four inside directors and five outside directors were newly appointed, completing the board composition.
Sonid plans to concurrently implement company-wide restructuring for efficient cost management and improved management efficiency, and expects that reflecting the performance of Selector, recently acquired, will put sales and operating profit on a full-fledged turnaround track this year.
Through the 2025 business plan, Sonid intends to pursue various measures such as increasing sales, selling assets and equity stakes in other companies, resale of CBs, and issuing new CBs to secure cash liquidity and improve financial soundness.
A Sonid official stated, "Although we experienced temporary difficulties last year due to delayed payment of capital increase and designation for non-compliant disclosure, we resolved major risks and entered a normalization track through proactive capital reduction measures, completion of capital increase payment, and board reorganization. This 'unqualified' opinion externally confirms management stability and recovery potential, and we plan to normalize the financial structure by significantly reducing the pre-tax continuing operations loss (loss before income tax) ratio, which exceeded 100% at the end of last year, to below 50% this year."
Sonid plans to focus on 'fundamental structural improvement' by adding new business purposes and reorganizing existing businesses at the regular shareholders' meeting on March 31.
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