60 companies face being delisted from Korean stock market

• Published date: 05 March 2023
• Publication title: The Korea Times

A total of 60 companies face being delisted from the Korean stock market as watchdogs could strip their listing qualification following a review based on their 2022 audit reports.

According to the Korea Exchange, a group of six companies listed on the benchmark KOSPI is at risk of being delisted once they submit their annual audit reports to the exchange operator and the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) by the end of March. The stock trading of others in the secondary Kosdaq may also be halted if external auditors issue negative opinions about them continuing to be listed on the bourse. The stock trading of most of these companies has already been suspended.

The six KOSPI-listed companies are Il Jeong Industrial, BK Tops, Seondo Electric, Thelma Therapeutics, Hitron and SsangYong Motor.

Kolon Life Science and Kolon TissueGene are the most famous companies to be designated on a watch list in the Kosdaq, for having reported losses for two of the past three business years. Other Kosdaq-listed firms also face delisting after having been classified into a group required to receive screening on their listing qualifications for diverse reasons such as embezzlement, business malpractice and continuous operating losses.

The fate of those facing deficits will be particularly affected hard by the audit report.

Data from the exchange shows that...