Each POSCO Holdings ADR represents one quarter of a common share, so every per-share figure in Korean reporting has to be divided by four before it means anything in New York.
POSCO Holdings tripled first-half net income to 1.30tn won from 428bn, and the headline is accurate but hides how little of it operations produced.
POSCO Holdings trades at 0.45x equity attributable to the parent, which reads as one of the cheapest large industrials in Asia until you add the debt back.
Hyundai Steel (004020), POSCO Holdings Inc.
POSCO Holdings (KRX:005490) and five affiliate companies will hire more than 100 new graduates for roles spanning AI, robotics, production and management, the group said Wednesday.
POSCO Holdings completed the disposal of treasury shares from its ongoing share repurchase program.
| Period | 005490 | KOSPI | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 week | -0.1% | -1.5% | +1.3% |
| 1 month | +7.7% | +5.2% | +2.5% |
| 3 months | -16.2% | -22.6% | +6.4% |
| 6 months | +4.8% | +31.3% | -26.5% |
| Year to date | +10.5% | +58.7% | -48.2% |
| 1 year | +18.7% | +108.9% | -90.3% |
Closed at 27% of the way from its 52-week low (₩263,000) to its 52-week high (₩535,000).
| Grade | Now | 3M | 6M |
|---|---|---|---|
| Valuation 0.45x parent equity of 57.5tn won, but ~16x annualised H1 operating profit on enterprise value of about 50tn | B- | — | — |
| Profitability H1 operating margin 4.11% (FY2025 2.64%); gross margin 8.55%, up 77bp YoY | C+ | — | — |
| Financial Health Net debt 24.06tn won, up 2.61tn in six months; that is 92.6% of market cap and ~7.9x annualised operating profit | C+ | — | — |
| Growth H1 revenue +6.1% after two years of decline; operating profit +29.8%; Q2 revenue +7.7% QoQ | B | — | — |
| Cash Conversion H1 operating cash flow 709bn won on 1.30tn of profit; free cash flow negative in 2023, 2024, 2025 and H1 2026 | D+ | — | — |
This is not a dividend to POSCO Holdings shareholders. It is POSCO Holdings disclosing that POSCO, the unlisted steelmaking subsidiary it owns outright, declared an interim dividend of ₩687 per share totalling ₩66.3bn, all of which flows up to the parent. The record date was June 30 and payment is due September 10. Against POSCO Holdings' 2025 net income of about ₩504bn, the transfer is equal to roughly 13% of a year's consolidated profit, though as an intra-group payment it changes where the cash sits rather than how much the group has. The market-price yield field is blank because POSCO is not listed and no market price exists to compute it against.
POSCO declared 2,000 won a share for the second quarter, 151.2bn won in total, with a record date of 24 August and payment on 7 September — within a month of the 7 August board resolution, as Article 165-12 of the Capital Markets Act requires. The note beneath the numbers matters more than the numbers. POSCO says the quarterly amount is set by reference to that quarter's results and business plan, in order to smooth dividend volatility, and that the group runs an annual shareholder return ratio of 35% to 40% against adjusted net income attributable to controlling interests. That is the reverse of how a US industrial works: the payout ratio is the commitment and the per-share rate is the variable. Annualising 2,000 won gives a 2.44% gross yield, but the filing is explicitly telling you not to. Four quarters at this level would be about 605bn won, roughly 26% of annualised first-half attributable profit — below the stated band. Either the later quarters pay more, or the "adjusted" profit base is materially lower than the reported one. For a US holder of the ADR, each ADR receives a quarter of the per-share amount, and Korean withholding at the 15% treaty rate applies.
The board resolved on August 7, with seven outside directors present, to fix August 24 as the record date for a quarterly dividend to POSCO Holdings' own shareholders. The filing names a date and nothing else — no amount per share, no total, no payment date. Those come in a separate declaration filing. The legal basis cited is Article 56-2 of the company's articles of incorporation, the clause that permits quarterly distributions at all. For a company whose 2025 revenue was ₩69.1tn and net income ₩504bn, against a ₩26.2tn market capitalization, the size of the payment is the part this document deliberately leaves out.
POSCO confirmed a serious industrial accident at a subsidiary on 9 June and disclosed it on 10 June. The Korea Exchange treated the one-day gap as a failure to disclose under Article 33 of the KOSPI Disclosure Regulation and issued advance notice that POSCO would be designated an "unfaithful disclosure company." The notice records zero penalty points against POSCO over the preceding year and states that if cumulative points reach ten, trading in the shares is halted for a full day on the designation date. POSCO had until 19 June to appeal under Article 34. On 23 June the exchange decided not to designate, deferring the matter. Nothing here damaged the company. It is worth knowing because there is no US equivalent: the SEC does not publish a running scoreboard of filing promptness, assign points, or suspend trading as a disclosure sanction. Korea does all three, and the record is public on DART but invisible to a holder of the New York ADR.
POSCO Holdings is the parent of one of the world's largest steelmakers and, increasingly, of a battery materials business that behaves nothing like it. The steel operation runs integrated blast-furnace mills at Pohang and Gwangyang and supplies the sheet, plate and specialty grades that Korean shipbuilders, carmakers and construction firms consume. Alongside it sit POSCO Future M, which makes cathode and anode materials for lithium-ion cells, POSCO International in trading and gas, and lithium and nickel assets in Argentina and Australia. For a US investor the useful comparison is Nucor or Cleveland-Cliffs for the steel half, except that POSCO is blast-furnace rather than electric-arc and sells into an Asian market where Chinese export volumes set the price. The battery half has no US-listed equivalent of similar scale — it is closer to Albemarle plus a cathode maker, bolted onto a steel company. The two businesses run on different cycles, which is the central fact about the company. Steel turns on Chinese supply and Korean industrial demand; battery materials turn on EV adoption and lithium prices. The holding company structure dates only to 2022, when POSCO split itself so the growth business could be financed separately. POSCO trades in New York as an ADR under the ticker PKX.
| Sector | Steel | Employees | |
| Market | KOSPI | Founded | 1968 |
| Korean name | POSCO홀딩스 | Head office | Pohang, North Gyeongsang, South Korea |
| Symbol | Last Price |
|---|---|
| 004020Hyundai Steel | ₩31,500 -0.5% |
| 001430SeAH Besteel Holdings Corporation | ₩42,350 +4.8% |
| 100090SK oceanplant Co., Ltd. | ₩13,860 +7.4% |
| 014620Sung Kwang Bend Co., Ltd. | ₩30,850 +1.5% |
| 023160T. K. Corporation | ₩26,150 +1.4% |
| 058650Seah Holdings Corp. | ₩133,600 -0.4% |
| 016380KG Dongbusteel | ₩5,590 +0.0% |
| 009520POSCO M-tech Co., Ltd. | ₩12,650 +1.2% |
| 460860Dongkuk Steel Mill Co., Ltd. | ₩10,510 -1.5% |
| 002240Kiswire Co., Ltd. | ₩17,220 +0.1% |