Korean shares have long traded at lower valuations than peers in other developed markets — the so-called Korea discount. In 2024 the Financial Services Commission and the Korea Exchange launched the Corporate Value-up Program, which encourages listed companies to publish multi-year plans for returns on equity, dividends and share buybacks, and the exchange introduced a Korea Value-up Index.
Banks, insurers and large exporters have responded most visibly. Financial groups such as KB Financial, Shinhan, Hana and Woori, and companies like Hyundai Motor, Kia, KT&G and SK Telecom, have announced shareholder return targets that combine dividends with buybacks — and, importantly, with cancellation of repurchased shares, which permanently reduces the share count.
Korea also changed its dividend procedure so that many companies now decide the dividend amount before the record date, letting investors know what they will receive before they buy. Every buyback decision, cancellation and dividend decision is a DART filing; this page lists them for the companies above, translated into English.
How to read this page
Look for three different filings: a decision to acquire treasury shares (buyback), a decision to retire shares (cancellation), and a cash dividend decision. A buyback without cancellation can be resold later; cancellation is what reduces the share count for good.
Information only — not investment advice. Headlines and filing titles are machine-translated from Korean; each links to the original Korean source. Updated: