Seoul attempts to close the “Korea discount” for stocks

South Korean stocks suffer from the “Korea discount” – with the country still classified as an emerging market, investors are reluctant to pay a premium.

View of Seoul, South Korea
South Korea is still classified as an emerging market
(Image credit: © Getty Images/iStockphoto)

South Korea is planning to close the “Korea discount”, says Joori Roh for Reuters. Companies in Asia’s fourth-biggest economy have lower valuations than comparable businesses in other markets because of “low dividend payouts” and the “dominance of opaque conglomerates known as chaebols”.

Foreign investors have long complained about onerous administrative requirements to trade in Seoul and a lack of corporate information in English. South Korean firms also “confirm dividend amounts weeks after the so-called ex-date” (the day a stock starts trading without the value of its next dividend), making it difficult for income investors to calculate their returns.

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Markets editor

Alex is an investment writer who has been contributing to MoneyWeek since 2015. He has been the magazine’s markets editor since 2019. 

Alex has a passion for demystifying the often arcane world of finance for a general readership. While financial media tends to focus compulsively on the latest trend, the best opportunities can lie forgotten elsewhere. 

He is especially interested in European equities – where his fluent French helps him to cover the continent’s largest bourse – and emerging markets, where his experience living in Beijing, and conversational Chinese, prove useful. 

Hailing from Leeds, he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. He also holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Manchester.