PER, EPS, PBR and BPS are calculated in-house from the last 4 quarters (2025Q3–2026Q2) · Dividend yield is based on ₩600 per share · Prices as of the 2026-10-02 close
Noroo Holdings, the holding company centered on paint and fine-chemicals subsidiary Noroo Paint & Coatings, is passing through a phase of pronounced earnings volatility, with profit falling sharply in 2025 before improving again in the second quarter of 2026.
2025 revenue was roughly flat year-on-year, but operating profit fell 11% and net profit attributable to owners dropped 36%.
In the second quarter of 2026, revenue reached KRW 356.2 billion and operating profit KRW 30.8 billion, the highest margin quarter in the recent five-quarter window, signaling a possible recovery.
Core subsidiary Noroo Paint & Coatings is defending earnings on the back of stable profitability in automotive coatings even as architectural and industrial coatings face slowing growth.
The group is pursuing commercialization of industrial bio-materials as a new growth driver, including winning a government-backed '3-HP' national R&D project.
The debt ratio improved steadily from 77.4% in 2022 to 57.6% in 2025.
Founded in 1945 and converted into a holding company structure in 2006, Noroo Holdings sits at the top of a Korean paint and fine-chemicals group, deriving its main income from subsidiary equity holdings, brand royalties, and leasing operations.
Its core subsidiary is KOSPI-listed Noroo Paint & Coatings, which manufactures architectural, industrial, automotive refinish, and pre-coated metal (PCM) coatings that account for most of the group's revenue.
The group holds 26 domestic and overseas subsidiaries organized under five business segments, with affiliates separately handling automotive coatings, coil coatings, specialty chemicals, and logistics.
Overseas, the group uses a Hong Kong entity as a bridgehead alongside a China joint venture and a Vietnam production plant in Dong Nai to expand into Southeast Asia.
It also operates an agribusiness segment spanning agricultural distribution, processing, and seed cultivation, together with a paint distribution business. The group has set a long-term vision of entering the global top 10 paint makers through joint research on new technologies and eco-friendly products.
More recently, in response to the maturing of its core coatings business, it has been exploring new growth businesses such as industrial bio-materials. This structure, spanning automotive, architectural, industrial, and specialty coatings, diversifies exposure across different end markets.
| Quarter | Revenue | Operating profit | Op. margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025Q2 | ₩348.8B | ₩23.6B | 6.8% |
| 2025Q3 | ₩314.7B | ₩19.7B | 6.3% |
| 2025Q4 | ₩286.8B | ₩8.9B | 3.1% |
| 2026Q1 | ₩298.8B | ₩16.2B | 5.4% |
| 2026Q2 | ₩356.2B | ₩30.8B | 8.7% |
| Year | Revenue | Operating profit | Net income (parent) | Op. margin | ROE | Debt-to-equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | ₩1T | ₩30B | ₩25B | 2.9% | 6.3% | 77.4% |
| 2023 | ₩1.2T | ₩67.4B | ₩25.5B | 5.6% | 6.2% | 71.4% |
| 2024 | ₩1.2T | ₩72.6B | ₩50.7B | 5.8% | 10.8% | 57.3% |
| 2025 | ₩1.2T | ₩64.5B | ₩32.4B | 5.2% | 6.4% | 57.6% |
Consolidated basis (financial statements including subsidiaries) · Final figures from DART filings · Net income attributable to owners of the parent · Data as of 2026-08-21
In 2025, consolidated revenue was KRW 1.239 trillion, roughly flat versus 2024's KRW 1.248 trillion, but operating profit fell 11% to KRW 64.5 billion from KRW 72.6 billion, and net profit attributable to owners dropped 36% to KRW 32.4 billion from KRW 50.7 billion.
The operating margin slipped from 5.8% in 2024 to 5.2% in 2025. This pattern was already visible in the nine-month cumulative results through the third quarter of 2025, when revenue rose 2.1% year-on-year even as operating profit and net profit fell 19.7% and 41.2%, respectively.
Management attributed this to automotive coatings maintaining high profitability on stable demand, while architectural and industrial coatings faced slowing growth and intensifying competition as the market matured.
On a quarterly basis, after the third quarter of 2025 (revenue KRW 314.7 billion, operating profit KRW 19.7 billion, owners' net profit KRW 10.7 billion), fourth-quarter revenue fell to KRW 286.8 billion and operating profit slid to KRW 8.9 billion, sharply compressing margins.
The low-margin trend continued into the first quarter of 2026 with revenue of KRW 298.8 billion and operating profit of KRW 16.2 billion, before a clear improvement in the second quarter, when revenue reached KRW 356.2 billion, operating profit KRW 30.8 billion, and owners' net profit KRW 11.9 billion, lifting the operating margin to roughly 8.7%.
Over a multi-year horizon, the operating margin rose from 2.9% in 2022 to the mid-5% range in 2023-2024 before easing again in 2025, illustrating how margins swing with raw material costs and end-market demand.
On the balance sheet, the debt ratio declined steadily from 77.4% in 2022 to 57.6% in 2025, while operating cash flow remained stable at around KRW 80 billion in 2025.
Noroo Paint & Coatings' own assessment is that Korea's paint industry has entered a mature phase, with structurally slowing growth and intensifying competition in architectural and industrial coatings.
Demand for eco-friendly and functional coatings, however, continues to rise, prompting the industry to respond with higher-performance product development and overseas market expansion.
In the downstream construction sector, industry forecasters expect construction investment, after an approximately 9% decline in 2025, to see only a limited rebound of about 2% to roughly KRW 269 trillion in 2026.
Divergence between the greater Seoul area and regional markets, along with cost and safety-regulation burdens, are cited as factors limiting the pace of recovery in demand for architectural and industrial coatings.
By contrast, automotive coatings are viewed as maintaining relatively stable demand and higher profitability within the group. On the cost side, rising raw material prices weighed on margins in the first quarter of 2026, though stable oil prices and steady performance in PCM coatings partially offset that pressure.
Competitively, Noroo Paint & Coatings is one of Korea's leading integrated coatings makers with a full lineup spanning PCM, automotive refinish, and architectural coatings, a structure that spreads exposure across multiple end markets rather than concentrating it in one.
Noroo Holdings has positioned commercialization of industrial bio-materials as a growth driver for 2026, winning a government-backed '3-HP' national R&D project to accelerate related technology development.
The company also said it is pursuing open innovation with a biotech-focused accelerator to commercialize 3HP-based applications.
Core subsidiary Noroo Paint & Coatings unveiled a 2026 value-up plan targeting execution of a technology-driven future-growth strategy, proactive management of compound risks, and efficiency gains through data-based operations.
The plan specifically emphasized strengthening bio, eco-friendly coatings, and new materials as future core technology areas, alongside efforts to reinforce liquidity through improved financial soundness.
On the ESG front, Noroo Paint & Coatings participated in the CDP climate change assessment for the first time, indicating strengthened non-financial disclosure. On governance, a change in chief executive appears to have taken place in March 2026, making the new management team's strategic direction a point to watch.
With the downstream construction cycle expected to see only a modest rebound, the pace of the company's earnings recovery is likely to hinge on the resilience of automotive coatings and the speed of recovery in architectural and industrial coatings.
The price-to-book ratio trades at a discount to net asset value, which can be partly explained by the holding-company discount phenomenon, where the market value of a holding company trades below the sum of its subsidiary equity stakes.
On the earnings side, net profit fell sharply in 2025 versus the prior year before improving again in the second quarter of 2026, reflecting a direction that has shifted more than once.
The price-to-earnings multiple sits near the lower end of the band in which the stock has historically traded, a level that is also on the low side relative to other holding-company peers.
On dividends, the company has a track record of declaring a cash dividend at each fiscal year-end, indicating that its shareholder-return policy has been maintained.
That said, given the considerable earnings volatility, valuation metrics alone should not be taken as a definitive read on the company's underlying fundamentals.
PER, EPS, PBR and BPS are all calculated in-house (the same method as Naver and Toss) · Dividend yield = cash dividend per share from DART filings (supplemented by KRX) ÷ current price · As of 2026-08-21
Second-quarter 2026 revenue reached KRW 356.2 billion, operating profit KRW 30.8 billion, and owners' net profit KRW 11.9 billion, the highest operating margin (roughly 8.7%) among the five most recent quarters.
This can be read as a break from the low-margin stretch that ran from the fourth quarter of 2025 through the first quarter of 2026. Stable profitability in automotive coatings may have contributed to this improvement.
The debt ratio has steadily declined from 77.4% in 2022 to 57.6% in 2025, while operating cash flow has stayed above roughly KRW 70 billion every year. This suggests the holding company retains capacity for both subsidiary investment and shareholder returns.
Noroo Holdings is pursuing commercialization of industrial bio-materials through a government-backed '3-HP' national R&D project and open innovation with a biotech accelerator. Noroo Paint & Coatings also named bio, eco-friendly coatings, and new materials as future growth drivers in its 2026 value-up plan. This can be seen as a strategy to complement the maturing core coatings business with new ventures.
Korea's paint market has matured, with continuing slower growth and stiffer competition in architectural and industrial coatings. Downstream construction investment, after falling about 9% in 2025, is forecast to grow only about 2% in 2026, suggesting the recovery in this segment could be slow.
Net profit surged in 2024 versus the prior year but then fell 36% in 2025, and quarter-to-quarter swings have been large, with the operating margin dropping to the 3-5% range in the fourth quarter of 2025 and first quarter of 2026. This implies earnings predictability can be reduced by shifts in raw material costs and demand.
Under a holding-company structure, a gap can exist between the value of subsidiary stakes and the value the market assigns to the parent, a factor that can operate independently of improvements in the underlying businesses. This structural characteristic may persist or widen depending on market conditions.
Prices for petrochemical-based raw materials such as resins and pigments, along with oil prices, directly affect the cost structure of coatings production. In the first quarter of 2026, rising raw material costs pressured margins. If oil price stability does not persist, margin pressure could recur.
Construction investment fell sharply in 2025 and is expected to see only a mild recovery in 2026, risking a delayed rebound in demand for architectural and industrial coatings. Divergence between the greater Seoul area and regional markets is also expected to persist, potentially widening regional demand gaps.
A change in chief executive appears to have taken place in March 2026, and the new management team's execution of strategy could bring shifts in direction or temporary uncertainty. Changes in the pace of new-business initiatives or the operation of existing businesses cannot be ruled out.
The third-quarter earnings release is expected around this time based on a data provider's tentative schedule; it is worth checking whether the second-quarter margin improvement continues.
It is worth monitoring whether construction investment and housing-start indicators recover, as these are directly tied to demand for architectural and industrial coatings.
Disclosures on the progress of Noroo Paint & Coatings' 2026 value-up plan and the commercialization status of the 3-HP bio-material project should be checked.
The regular shareholders' meeting and the fiscal-year 2026 dividend decision disclosure will indicate whether the shareholder-return policy continues.
Noroo Holdings is a paint and fine-chemicals holding company centered on subsidiary Noroo Paint & Coatings, and while revenue has moved along a modest path through 2025, operating profit and net profit have shown considerable volatility tied to raw material costs and end-market demand shifts.
Having passed through the low-margin period from the fourth quarter of 2025 through the first quarter of 2026 before a clear improvement in the second quarter, whether that momentum continues into the third quarter and beyond is the next thing to watch.
On the balance sheet, the debt ratio has declined steadily and operating cash flow has remained stable, improving the group's financial buffer as a holding company.
Operationally, stable profitability in automotive coatings contrasts with slowing growth in architectural and industrial coatings, while new ventures such as the 3-HP bio-material project are positioned as a longer-term complement.
The modest rebound expected in the downstream construction cycle and factors inherent to the holding-company structure are variables that warrant continued attention together. This report is prepared for informational purposes and does not contain a buy or sell recommendation.
Report written 2026-09-05 · Data as of 2026-09-04
This content is AI analysis of market data and web search results, provided for information only. It is not a solicitation or recommendation to invest. Investment decisions and their consequences are the investor's own responsibility. Data may be delayed or contain errors.