Korean ADRs in New York: How They Compare With Seoul Shares

Nine Korean companies can be bought in New York as American depositary receipts (ADRs), certificates that trade in dollars on a U.S. exchange and stand for shares held in Seoul. Eight trade on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), led by KB Financial Group, Shinhan Financial Group and POSCO Holdings. The ninth, SK hynix, joined the Nasdaq on July 10, 2026.

All eight NYSE companies filed annual reports on Form 20-F with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in April 2026. None had filed to delist when we checked their SEC filing lists on Nov. 8, 2026.

Samsung Electronics, Korea's largest company, is still missing from that list. Its depositary receipts trade in London, not New York.

An ADR and a Seoul share carry the same company, but not always the same price, tax handling or trading hours. Here's what you need to know.

Which Korean Companies Have ADRs in the US?

Nine companies had U.S.-listed ADRs on Nov. 8, 2026: three bank groups, a steelmaker, a power utility, two telecom carriers, a display maker and a memory-chip maker. Each ADR stands for a fixed slice of a Seoul share, set out in the company's own SEC filings.

That ratio matters more than any other number. One Woori Financial ADR holds three Seoul shares, while one SK hynix ADR holds a tenth of one.

Some ratios have changed over time. Shinhan's ADR has equaled one share since Oct. 15, 2012, after representing two before that. SK Telecom's odd five-ninths ratio dates from a 5-for-1 stock split on Oct. 28, 2021, made when it spun off SK Square.

The ADR programs are small next to each company. At POSCO Holdings, shares held as ADRs made up 2.8% of its common stock on Dec. 31, 2025, and at KEPCO 2.0%, their filings show.

SK hynix is the newest and largest. It sold 177.9 million ADRs at $149 each, raising about $26.5 billion, the Korea Times reported on July 10, 2026. Citibank acts as depositary, the bank that holds the Seoul shares and issues the ADRs. Our SK hynix explainer covers the company itself.

When Do Korean ADRs Trade Compared With Seoul?

Korean ADRs trade while Seoul sleeps. The core U.S. session runs from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern time, the definition of market hours in Nasdaq's rules cited by the SEC in an April 10, 2026, order.

Korea does not use daylight saving time. Since the U.S. returned to standard time on Nov. 1, 2026, that session runs from 11:30 p.m. to 6 a.m. the next day in Seoul. During U.S. daylight time, from mid-March, it runs from 10:30 p.m. to 5 a.m.

The two markets never overlap. The Korea Exchange's regular session runs from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in Seoul, and evening trading on the Korea Exchange and the Nextrade platform ends at 8 p.m. Our guide to Korean stock market hours has the full schedule.

That gap is narrowing. Nasdaq plans to start trading 23 hours a day at 9 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday, Dec. 6, 2026, which is 11 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 7, in Seoul, the Korea Herald reported on Nov. 8, 2026. NYSE Arca, NYSE Group's electronic exchange, is set to extend its hours on the same day.

The time gap also turns depositary receipts into a signal. Seoul investors watch overnight prices of Samsung and SK hynix receipts in London and Frankfurt as a preview of the next day, the Seoul Economic Daily reported on May 22, 2026. Samsung's Seoul shares and London receipts moved in the same direction on eight of 10 trading days that May, it said.

How Are Dividends on Korean ADRs Paid and Taxed?

ADR holders get dividends in dollars after Korean tax and a small depositary fee. The Korean company pays the depositary in won, and the depositary converts the money into dollars, SK hynix's prospectus says. Exchange-rate moves therefore change what an ADR holder receives.

The tax is the same Korean withholding that applies to direct shareholders. Unless a treaty provides otherwise, Korea withholds 22.0% including local income tax, KT said in its 2026 annual report. A qualifying U.S. resident who owns the dividend generally pays 16.5% under the Korea-U.S. tax treaty, according to the same filing.

The paperwork is lighter for ADR holders. "If you hold ADSs and receive the dividends through a depositary, you are not required to submit the application for entitlement to a reduced tax rate," KT's filing says, using the term American depositary shares (ADSs). Our guide to the Korean dividend withholding tax explains how treaties work for shares held in Korea.

Depositary fees differ by company, as listed in each annual report:

• KB Financial: up to $0.02 per ADR for each cash dividend
• Woori Financial: up to $0.05 per ADR
• POSCO Holdings and SK hynix: up to $5.00 per 100 ADRs
• KEPCO: $0.02 or less per ADR
• KT: no fee on dividend distributions

Selling usually brings no Korean tax. Gains from selling ADRs outside Korea are exempt under Korea's Special Tax Treatment Control Law, provided the ADRs count as an overseas issuance, KT's filing says. This is general information, not tax advice.

Why Do ADR Prices Differ From Seoul Share Prices?

An ADR's price can drift from its Seoul share because the two trade in different currencies, at different times and among different buyers. "The trading prices of our common shares and our ADSs on these two markets may differ due to these and other factors," SK hynix said in its prospectus.

To compare them, multiply the ADR price by the number of ADRs per share and convert. Ten SK hynix ADRs closed at $1,680.10 on July 10, 2026, which the Korea Times put at about 15.8% above the Seoul close.

That gap then widened. The monthly average rose from 25.6% in July to 46.8% on Oct. 21, 2026, the Asia Business Daily reported on Oct. 24, citing DS Investment & Securities. On July 14, the premium reached 51%, the Korea Times reported.

The cause is a one-way door. Investors can turn SK hynix ADRs into Seoul shares, but the limit for turning shares into ADRs, 17.79 million shares or 2.4% of shares outstanding, was used up by the offering, the Asia Business Daily reported. Korean law requires the company's consent for such conversions.

"The gap is not narrowing because there is no way to convert ordinary shares into ADRs, and it will be difficult to leave this situation unaddressed indefinitely," Kim Soo-hyun, head of research at DS Investment & Securities, wrote, as translated from Korean by the Asia Business Daily.

The older ADRs show the other case. KB Financial, Shinhan, POSCO Holdings and KEPCO have ADRs equal to 2% to 6% of their shares, yet their average gaps over the past year stayed between 0.2% and 0.6%, according to the same report. KB says it has agreed to deposits of up to a set number of shares, never less than 100 million.

Simply put, when traders can buy cheap Seoul shares and turn them into ADRs, the gap closes. When that route is blocked, it can stay wide.

Korean retail investors joined in anyway. They bought a net $675.5 million of SK hynix ADRs in the month after the listing, the Korea Times reported, citing the Korea Securities Depository.

"I can at least understand the logic of a non-Korean investor buying the ADRs. What I cannot understand is a Korean investor buying the ADRs," said Owen A. Lamont, senior vice president at Acadian Asset Management.

Ownership caps can block the route too. "Korean law currently limits foreign ownership of the ADSs and our shares," KT said in its filing, and its depositary cannot issue new ADRs against deposited shares without KT's consent. Telecom carriers are capped at 49% foreign ownership, as our guide to foreign ownership limits explains.

Why Does Samsung Electronics Have No US ADR?

Samsung Electronics says it does not need one for now. On its second-quarter earnings call on July 30, 2026, the company said "the possibility of a U.S. listing through the issuance of American Depositary Receipts (ADR) is not currently under review," according to the Seoul Economic Daily (translated from Korean).

It added that "the need for an ADR listing to raise capital is not high," while leaving the idea open over the medium to long term as a way to raise shareholder value.

Cash is the main reason analysts give. Samsung held about ₩147 trillion ($108 billion) in cash and short-term financial instruments at the end of March 2026, against about ₩54 trillion ($40 billion) at SK hynix, the Seoul Economic Daily reported on July 15, 2026. Dollar figures use ₩1,356.6 per dollar, the Seoul 3:30 p.m. rate on Nov. 6, 2026, reported by the Korea Herald.

The same report listed the costs of a U.S. listing. New shares for ADRs would dilute existing holders. Samsung would also have to file Form 20-F annual reports, face U.S. class-action lawsuits and have its chief executive and chief financial officer personally certify reports under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Some shareholders want it anyway. Artisan Partners, which owned 0.7% of Samsung at the end of 2025, publicly urged a U.S. listing in a Bloomberg interview on March 26, 2026, citing the access U.S. retail investors lack, Edaily reported.

For now, Samsung's overseas listing is in London. Its global depositary receipts (GDRs), the non-U.S. version of ADRs, are listed on the London Stock Exchange, and it ended its Luxembourg listing at the end of 2024, Edaily reported on March 27, 2026.

Together, ADRs give foreign investors a dollar route to nine Korean companies, but the ratio, the dividend fees and whether Seoul shares can flow into ADRs decide how closely each one tracks its home price.