[Daedong Metal]
[Daedong Metal]

Full cancellation of treasury shares worth 1 billion won set for July 14

Share count to fall to 6.07 million after cancellation following bonus issue

Company targets 240 billion won in sales and price-to-book ratio of 2x by 2030

Daedong Metal, a cast-parts manufacturer affiliated with Daedong Group, will cancel all of its treasury shares worth about 1 billion won ($655,000), the latest in a series of shareholder-return measures following a 100 percent bonus share issue in March.

The company said Wednesday it decided to cancel 304,800 treasury shares to stabilize its share price and enhance shareholder value. The shares, valued at 999.67 million won, are scheduled for cancellation on July 14.

The shares to be canceled represent about 4.78 percent of the total issued shares of 6,378,332. Once the cancellation is complete, Daedong Metal's total issued shares will fall to 6,073,532.

Daedong Metal entered a trust agreement for treasury share acquisition on June 11 and has since been buying back shares on the open market. The company completed a 1 billion won buyback on Thursday and the board of directors voted to cancel all of the acquired shares on Tuesday.

The cancellation follows through on a shareholder-return plan the company announced earlier. In March, Daedong Metal approved a 100 percent bonus share issue, allocating one new share for every existing common share. The newly issued 3,189,166 shares were listed on May 7.

The company also laid out a medium-to-long-term plan to boost corporate value. In a corporate value enhancement plan released in May, Daedong Metal set a target of raising sales from 101.8 billion won in 2025 to 240 billion won by 2030. It also aims to lift its price-to-book ratio from 0.4 times to 2 times and improve its return on equity from negative 3.2 percent to 10 percent over the same period.

Growth strategies include expanding orders for high-value castings, commercializing advanced materials for smart farms and new alloys for robots and mobility applications, broadening the use of artificial intelligence in manufacturing, and strengthening ESG management. The company plans to improve profitability in its core casting business while expanding into advanced materials and emerging industries.

Daedong Metal is also pushing into overseas markets. The company recently set a target of raising its overseas sales ratio from the current roughly 10 percent to 30 percent by 2030, with a longer-term goal of 50 percent. It is targeting new orders in Japan's industrial machinery and semiconductor equipment sectors.

"The significance of this treasury share cancellation lies in the fact that we did not stop at announcing a shareholder-return plan but moved quickly to execute it," CEO Lee Pung-woo said. "We will continue shareholder-friendly policies — including dividends, bonus share issues and treasury share cancellations — while accelerating the execution of our five core strategies to drive medium-to-long-term corporate value enhancement."


hong@heraldcorp.com