ECS to Keep Buying Back Shares Until PBR Reaches 0.7

ECS announced it will continue buying back and cancelling its own shares until its price-to-book ratio reaches 0.7, saying it is currently executing a 3 billion won treasury share acquisition trust contract, according to bloter.net.

CEO Hyeon Hae-nam said the company will keep purchasing and cancelling treasury shares while its PBR stays below 0.7. ECS closed at 2,560 won on the 8th, giving it a market capitalization of 27.9 billion won and a PBR of 0.52.

The buyback trust contract was signed in August and runs until February 18 of next year. In March, ECS cancelled 1,405,500 common shares worth about 4.5 billion won, equal to 11.4% of total shares issued at the time, and it has spent more than 10 billion won on treasury share purchases and cancellations to date.

In July, Hyeon bought 30,000 ECS shares for about 65 million won across four transactions, raising his stake to 2.73 million shares, or 25.07%. As of the end of June this year, the company held 29.6 billion won in short-term financial instruments and cash equivalents, with no short-term borrowings and 40.2 billion won in unappropriated retained earnings.

ECS has paid year-end dividends for 19 consecutive years since 2008, with an average dividend yield of 3.05% over the past three years, and said in June it would pay at least 150 won per share in dividends over the next three years. For the fiscal year ended March 2025, ECS reported operating profit of 300 million won, turning from a 2.7 billion won loss the previous year, revenue of 91.2 billion won, up 24.4%, and net income of 1.7 billion won, up 165.1%.