Korea Value-Up Program Explained: Plans, Index and How to Track Them

South Korea's Financial Services Commission (FSC), the country's financial regulator, launched the Corporate Value-up Program on Feb. 26, 2024. The program asks listed companies to publish plans for raising their market value. By the end of September 2026, 764 companies had filed one, Edaily reported on Oct. 6, 2026.

For a foreign investor, those plans work as a public scorecard. Many set targets for return on equity (ROE) and dividend payouts. Since November 2026, the Korea Exchange (KRX) has also named companies with persistently low valuations.

The program targets the so-called Korea discount, the undervaluation of Korean stocks compared with foreign markets. Despite a bull run in the benchmark KOSPI, 513 of 808 KOSPI-listed companies, or 63.5%, still traded below their book value in April 2026, the Korea JoongAng Daily reported.

Because taking part is voluntary, regulators and the exchange have built rewards and pressure around the plans: a stock index, a dividend tax break, annual awards and a public list of low-valuation companies.

Here's what you need to know.

What Is Korea's Corporate Value-Up Program?

The FSC unveiled the program at a seminar with the KRX and industry groups on Feb. 26, 2024. "Value-up" is shorthand for raising corporate value, and the FSC said it would run the program as a mid- to long-term agenda.

The program rests on three pillars. It supports companies as they prepare, carry out and communicate value-up plans, helps investors evaluate companies that improve, and sets up a dedicated support system.

The FSC said the program "will be run on a voluntary basis" so that each company can write a plan suited to its own situation. Its stated aim was a "positive feedback loop" in which companies get proper valuations and investors share in their growth.

"There are similarities to Japan's case in that the program aims to encourage listed companies to voluntarily set up and disclose valuation enhancement plans," the FSC said in a Q&A section of its launch release.

What Goes Into a Corporate Value-Up Plan?

The FSC released draft guidelines on May 2, 2024, and the KRX finalized them later that month. A plan follows a set sequence: company overview, current status analysis, goal setting, planning, implementation evaluation and communication.

Each company picks its own key indicators, financial or non-financial, to fit its mid- to long-term goals. The board of directors is expected to play a key role, and the guidelines recommend disclosing the plan every year and reporting progress between disclosures.

Plans are filed through KIND, the KRX's online disclosure system, before a company briefs selected groups or posts the plan on its own website. The guidelines cite English disclosure for foreign investors as one example of effective communication.

Filings rose sharply in 2026. In March 2026 alone, 409 companies filed new plans, 405 of them high-dividend companies, which lifted the total since May 2024 to 590, the Seoul Economic Daily reported.

By the end of September 2026, the count had reached 764: 358 companies on the KOSPI and 406 on the secondary KOSDAQ market. Filers made up 88.4% of the KOSPI's market capitalization, according to Edaily.

How Does the Korea Value-Up Index Work?

The Korea Value-up Index is a benchmark of "best practice" companies that institutional investors such as pension funds can follow. It began publication on Sept. 30, 2024, with 100 stocks, 67 from the KOSPI and 33 from the KOSDAQ, the Korea JoongAng Daily reported.

The KRX picked stocks from the 400 largest companies by market capitalization, weighing market cap, profitability, shareholder return performance, price-to-book (P/B) ratio and ROE. A P/B ratio below 1 means the market values a company at less than its net assets, or book value.

Stocks are weighted by free-float market capitalization, with a 15% cap on any single stock. The index has a base of 1,000 points set on Jan. 2, 2024, and its members are reviewed once a year.

"This Value-Up Index launch should be a tailwind to the domestic stock market," Korea Exchange Chief Executive Jeong Eun-bo said at a press conference in September 2024, as translated by KED Global.

The first list drew criticism for leaving out KB Financial Group and Hana Financial Group, two financial groups active in the program. The KRX added both on Dec. 20, 2024, along with SK Telecom, KT and Hyundai Mobis, raising the count to 105, the Korea JoongAng Daily reported.

Since then, the index has tilted toward companies that file plans. The June 2025 review added 27 stocks and removed 32, bringing the count back to 100. Plan filers' share of the index rose from 7% at launch to 61%, the Asia Business Daily reported.

The review that took effect on June 12, 2026 added 20 stocks, including HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, and removed 19, including Hyundai Rotem. With it, plan filers made up 100% of the index, the Seoul Economic Daily reported.

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) listed in Seoul track the index. Twelve ETFs and one exchange-traded note began trading on Nov. 4, 2024, and 13 value-up ETFs were trading by the end of September 2026, Edaily reported.

The index closed at 3,228.34 on Sept. 30, 2026, up 79.6% from the end of 2025, compared with a 62.3% gain in the KOSPI over the same period, according to Edaily.

Which Value-Up Incentives Passed and Which Were Dropped?

The FSC's 2024 package promised tax incentives, awards for top performers, the index and its ETFs, and help for smaller companies, including disclosure training, consulting and English translation. The tax part proved the hardest to deliver.

In its July 2024 tax revision plan, the Ministry of Economy and Finance proposed a corporate tax credit worth 5% of any increase in shareholder returns. It would have gone to companies that file plans and raise dividends and buybacks 5% above their average of the previous three years.

Shareholders of those companies with large financial incomes could also have chosen a 25% tax rate on their dividends instead of progressive rates of 14% to 45%. Those measures "were not tabled due to opposition from the opposition party," the Asia Business Daily reported on Dec. 11, 2024.

"From the perspective of value-up companies and investors, the actual incentives were not substantial," Researcher Jeon Bae-seung of LS Securities said, as translated by the Asia Business Daily. He expected the failure to have only a limited impact.

A different dividend tax break passed a year later. On Dec. 2, 2025, the National Assembly passed a revision to the Restriction of Special Taxation Act by 201 votes to 18.

The revision taxes dividends from high-dividend companies separately from other income, at rates of 14% to 30% depending on the amount. A company qualifies with a payout ratio of 40% or more, or of 25% or more combined with a dividend increase of at least 10% from the previous year.

The rule took effect on Jan. 1, 2026, and the FSC then tied it to the program. Under a revised rule the FSC announced on Feb. 24, 2026, high-dividend companies must show in a value-up plan filed with the KRX that they meet the tax requirements. The deadline is one day after the annual shareholders' meeting declares the dividend.

In the first year, an abridged plan covering only the tax qualification, ROE, a payout ratio target and a capital spending target is allowed. The Seoul Economic Daily attributed the March 2026 surge to high-dividend companies "filing en masse to qualify for tax benefits."

Simply put, a company that wants its shareholders to get the lower dividend tax rate now has to say so in a value-up plan. By the end of September 2026, 638 high-dividend companies had filed one, according to Edaily. For how dividends paid to foreign investors are taxed, see our guide to buying Korean stocks from abroad.

The awards started in 2025. The KRX held its first Value-Up Excellent Companies Awards on May 27, 2025, and KB Financial Group received the top prize, the Deputy Prime Minister's Award, the Asia Business Daily reported.

At the 2026 ceremony, on May 27, 2026, Kiwoom Securities and Korea Aerospace Industries took the top award among 10 winners. Two other winners, Korea District Heating Corporation and ST Pharm, keep their places in the value-up index for two years, according to the Seoul Economic Daily.

Support for smaller companies has also grown. The KRX has offered one-on-one consulting since 2024. On March 5, 2026, it said it would open the service to larger companies and review drafts that companies write themselves, the Asia Business Daily reported.

What Is Korea's New Low-P/B List?

The newest tool adds pressure rather than reward. On July 28, 2026, the FSC and the KRX proposed standards for publicly listing companies with persistently low P/B ratios, a practice the FSC itself called "naming and shaming."

Companies are ranked by P/B within sectors defined by the Global Industry Classification Standard. A KOSPI company makes the list if it stays in the bottom 25% for three straight years, measured six times in a row, and a KOSDAQ company if it stays in the bottom 10%.

A company can stay off the list for one year by disclosing a value-up plan with specific steps to raise its P/B ratio. The FSC said the standards were part of a broader package introduced in March 2026 to bring "fundamental improvements" to Korea's capital markets.

The KRX announced the first list on Nov. 1, 2026. Of the 185 companies that met the criteria, 34 were exempted for filing plans with P/B improvement steps. That left 151 names, 96 on the KOSPI and 55 on the KOSDAQ, the Asia Business Daily reported.

The list includes Lotte Shopping, Hyundai Steel and Hanwha Life Insurance, whose P/B ratios in the latest half-year were 0.17, 0.19 and 0.27, Financial News reported. It stays on KIND until the next list, due on May 4, 2027, and the KRX plans to offer all 151 companies one-on-one P/B consulting in 2027.

Regulators say the plans must be more than paperwork. "The corporate value enhancement plan should not end as just another disclosure form," Lee Eog-weon, chairman of the Financial Services Commission, said on May 27, 2026, as translated by the Asia Business Daily.

Lee said companies with "more than 80% of the total market capitalization" had joined. He described the plan as "a compass for boards and management to continuously assess capital efficiency and shareholder value."

How Can Foreign Investors Track Value-Up Plans?

These steps work from outside Korea.

1. Start on KIND's Value-up page. KIND (kind.krx.co.kr), the KRX's disclosure system, is where companies file their plans, and its Value-up page also carries the low-P/B list.
2. Switch to English where possible. The KRX's English home page, global.krx.co.kr, links to KIND's English disclosure service at engkind.krx.co.kr and to a value-up site at mkind.krx.co.kr/eng-valueup.
3. Know which companies must file in English. Since May 2026, 265 KOSPI companies have had to publish English versions of the disclosures that KRX rules require, within three days of the Korean filing. All KOSPI companies, 848 in total, are due to follow from March 2027.
4. Read the plan, then the follow-ups. Note the indicators and targets the company chose, such as ROE or a payout ratio, and check later filings for progress against them.
5. Look for the low-P/B tag. Korean brokerages' mobile and home trading systems tag listed companies "low PBR," though the timing and format vary by firm.
6. Mark the calendar. The KRX publishes a monthly value-up status report, reviews the index once a year with changes taking effect in June, and updates the low-P/B list on the first trading day of May and November.

Together, the plans, the index, the tax link and the low-P/B list give foreign investors a public record of which Korean companies promised higher value, and a calendar for checking whether they deliver.