KOSPIAutomotive005850

Sl

₩52,400 0.00%2026-10-02 close

Market Cap

₩2.4T

Turnover

₩2.1B

Volume

40,000 shares

Shares out.

46.5M

PER

6.2×

PBR

0.9×

EPS

₩8,278

Dividend Yield

5.39%

PER, EPS, PBR and BPS are calculated in-house from the last 4 quarters (2025Q3–2026Q2) · Dividend yield is based on ₩2,770 per share · Prices as of the 2026-10-02 close

Report overview

Lamp Margin Recovery Meets Robot Parts

SL Corporation restored its operating margin in the first half of 2026 on a better lamp product mix and higher North America and India volumes, while robot components for Boston Dynamics and Hyundai Robotics Lab have been added as an early-stage second growth axis.

1
Operating profit reached KRW 143.8bn in Q1 2026 (10.4% margin) and KRW 125.8bn in Q2 2026 (9.2%), a clear recovery from the Q3 2025 trough of KRW 68.4bn (5.2%).
2
Consolidated 2025 revenue rose for a fourth straight year to KRW 5,240bn, but net profit attributable to owners fell 15.6% to KRW 310.8bn from KRW 368.4bn.
3
The 2025 mix was 78.2% lamps and 12.2% electrification parts, so customer output and new-model cycles have an outsized effect.
4
The 2026 new-order target is KRW 1.6tn, about 11.8% above the prior year's target, with KRW 477.3bn booked through April, or 30% of target, according to a brokerage report.
5
Robot parts now span Boston Dynamics Spot leg assemblies and body panels for the successor ODIE, plus lidar modules, battery pack assemblies and contract assembly for Hyundai Robotics Lab's MobED and PluD, though the revenue contribution remains early-stage.

Business structure

Founded in 1954, SL Corporation is an auto parts specialist that operates 21 affiliates across Korea, China and other regions, producing automotive lamps, electrification parts, mirrors and electronic components for carmakers including Hyundai Motor and Kia.

In 2025 the mix was 78.2% lamps and 12.2% electrification, a lamp-heavy structure, with lamp and other revenue tallied at about KRW 4,100.3bn. Beyond Hyundai Motor Group, the customer base extends to GM, Ford and Geely, and in Korea the company supplies both directly to carmakers and via module makers.

Overseas entities carry substantial weight: Hana Securities reported that as of Q1 2026 the North American arm SL America accounted for roughly 30% of revenue and India's SL Lumax about 8%.

In a May 2025 report, Samsung Securities said SL holds a 100% share of lamps supplied to Hyundai Motor Group in the North American and Indian markets.

On the product side, the structural shift from halogen and HID to LED light sources lifts headlamp unit prices; Samsung Securities said in a May 2026 report that the average selling price of second-generation Palisade and Telluride headlamps is KRW 430,000, about 40% above the prior model and 60% above comparable Tucson lamps.

In electrification, battery management systems (BMS) and side body control modules (SBCM) are being adopted across more vehicle programs.

Robot components for Boston Dynamics and Hyundai Robotics Lab have been added as a new axis, and per the 2026 sustainability report, R&D spending rose from KRW 171.4bn in 2023 to KRW 217.0bn in 2024 and KRW 250.8bn in 2025, lifting the R&D-to-revenue ratio from 3.5% to 4.8%.

Competition centers on order contests with global lamp specialists, and Daol Investment & Securities said in a May 2026 report that a rival's divestiture of its lamp division is expected to expand SL's volumes for Hyundai Motor Group.

Earnings trend

Quarterly revenue · Operating profit

₩1.3T₩105.9B25Q2₩1.3T₩68.4B25Q3₩1.4T₩113.5B25Q4₩1.4T₩143.8B26Q1₩1.4T₩125.8B26Q2

RevenueOperating profit

Annual revenue · Operating profit

₩4.2T₩197.9B2022₩4.8T₩386.2B2023₩5T₩395.2B2024₩5.2T₩407.1B2025

RevenueOperating profit

Quarterly results · Last 5 quarters
Quarter	Revenue	Operating profit	Op. margin
2025Q2	₩1.3T	₩105.9B	8.2%
2025Q3	₩1.3T	₩68.4B	5.2%
2025Q4	₩1.4T	₩113.5B	8.1%
2026Q1	₩1.4T	₩143.8B	10.4%
2026Q2	₩1.4T	₩125.8B	9.2%

Annual results
Year	Revenue	Operating profit	Net income (parent)	Op. margin	ROE	Debt-to-equity
2022	₩4.2T	₩197.9B	₩154.7B	4.7%	9.5%	71.8%
2023	₩4.8T	₩386.2B	₩335.5B	8.0%	17.4%	61.1%
2024	₩5T	₩395.2B	₩368.4B	7.9%	16.0%	54.3%
2025	₩5.2T	₩407.1B	₩310.8B	7.8%	12.2%	50.7%

Consolidated basis (financial statements including subsidiaries) · Final figures from DART filings · Net income attributable to owners of the parent · Data as of 2026-09-04

Earnings analysis

On an annual basis, revenue rose for four consecutive years from KRW 4,174.5bn in 2022 to KRW 4,838.8bn in 2023, KRW 4,973.3bn in 2024 and KRW 5,239.9bn in 2025.

Profitability jumped from KRW 197.9bn in operating profit and a 4.7% margin in 2022 to KRW 386.2bn and 8.0% in 2023, then held near the 8% area at KRW 395.2bn and 7.9% in 2024 and KRW 407.1bn and 7.8% in 2025.

However, 2025 net profit attributable to owners fell 15.6% to KRW 310.8bn from KRW 368.4bn in 2024, diverging from the direction of operating profit.

By quarter, operating profit bottomed at KRW 68.4bn in Q3 2025 (5.2% margin), a period when wage-settlement costs booked into the second half overlapped with US tariff burdens. The recovery then ran through KRW 113.5bn (8.1%) in Q4 2025, KRW 143.8bn (10.4%) in Q1 2026 and KRW 125.8bn (9.2%) in Q2 2026.

In Q2 2026, revenue rose 5.6%, operating profit 18.8% and net profit attributable to owners 55.0% year on year, taking the first half to revenue of KRW 2,755.3bn, operating profit of KRW 269.6bn and owners' net profit of KRW 239.6bn.

Q1 2026 did include one-off items: Samsung Securities said there was a one-time compensation payment tied to GM scrapping an electric vehicle project, and Hana Securities noted a settlement of EV-related parts costs from a North American customer.

Cash flow from operations rose to KRW 508.5bn in 2025 from KRW 482.0bn in 2024, exceeding reported operating profit, while the debt-to-equity ratio fell from 71.8% in 2022 to 50.7% in 2025.

Equity stood at KRW 2,651.7bn and liabilities at KRW 1,345.4bn at end-2025, leaving balance-sheet pressure lighter than in the past.

Industry analysis

End demand shows slowing electric vehicle sales alongside strong hybrids, and SL has been credited with defending earnings through a hybrid-weighted product lineup where demand held up better.

On volumes, Hyundai Motor Group's capacity build-out in North America and India is the key variable; a 2025 Samsung Securities report listed new plant start-ups including 300,000 units at the US Metaplant, 250,000 units at Hyundai's third India plant and 150,000 units at Kia's purpose-built vehicle plant.

Tariffs weighed on 2025 results, and Hanwha Investment & Securities said in a late-2025 report that with the applicable rate set at 15% rather than the previously assumed 25%, the estimated annual tariff impact would fall from about KRW 42bn to roughly KRW 25bn.

Product cycles continue to favor wider adoption of LED and micro lens array lamps, which structurally lifts average selling prices, so revenue can grow through pricing and mix even without a large increase in vehicle output.

India, by contrast, is seeing tougher competition: Hana Securities reported that SL Lumax revenue and net profit fell 5% and 38% respectively in Q1 2026. SL's competitive position within Hyundai Motor Group lamp volumes is clearly strong, but that also ties results tightly to one group's production and sales cycle.

Broadening from lamps into electrification and robotics is a strategy shared across Korean parts makers, so competition for new-business orders is intensifying as well.

Outlook

Management's 2026 new-order target is KRW 1.6tn, about 11.8% above the prior year's target, and Samsung Securities reported KRW 477.3bn booked through April, or 30% of target.

Order additions include BMS for four Hyundai and Kia electric vehicle programs and volumes tied to Hyundai Robotics Lab's PluD, alongside GM lamp awards.

On robotics, the 2026 sustainability report said the company won body panel work for ODIE, the successor to Spot, on the back of its Spot leg assembly technology, and also secured lidar sensors, battery pack assemblies and finished-robot assembly for MobED, with mass production described as starting soon.

Hana Securities said in a May 2026 report that supply for the second-generation Spot is slated to begin in the second half of 2026 and that participation in orders for the humanoid Atlas is expected, while Samsung Securities said Atlas item orders are under discussion.

In the core lamp business, the company added headlamp supply projects for BMW and Mini new and facelift models last year, and Hana Securities noted large-scale lamp supply to a German premium carmaker beginning at the end of 2026.

On the production side, rising utilization at the Mexico and India plants was cited as a basis for raising 2026 estimates.

Among brokerage estimates, Hana Securities projected 2026 revenue of KRW 5,757.9bn and operating profit of KRW 449.5bn, and Shinyoung Securities analyst Moon Yong-kwon said in a September 2026 report that although North America and India revenue growth had slowed to 5% and 3%, growth should reaccelerate.

These figures are brokerage estimates rather than company-confirmed results, so they need to be verified against actual quarterly filings.

Valuation

PER

6.2×

PBR

0.9×

ROE

15.0%

EPS

₩8,278

BPS

₩58,757

Dividend per share

₩2,770

The valuation debate centers on what multiple to assign to the earnings stability of the core lamp business versus the early-stage growth of the robotics initiative.

The earnings trajectory itself moved up from a low operating margin in 2022 to around the 8% area from 2023 onward and has held there, with first-half 2026 quarterly margins running above that level.

The price-to-book ratio differs between the company's own calculation and the figure published by the Korea Exchange, but both sit in territory that does not carry a premium to net assets, and the price-to-earnings ratio trades below both the broad KOSPI average and the 10x target multiple Hana Securities applied when setting its May 2026 target price.

On shareholder returns, the 2025 payout ratio was tallied at 41.0%, sharply higher than 2024, and filings confirm the company qualifies as a high-dividend company under Korea's Restriction of Special Taxation Act.

As for brokerage views, Shinyoung Securities maintained a buy rating in a September 2026 report while cutting its target price to KRW 80,000 from KRW 85,000, and Samsung Securities presented a target price of KRW 93,000 in a May 2026 report; these are those firms' views and not the opinion of this report.

The practical items to verify are whether lamp margins hold at first-half 2026 levels and when robot-parts revenue becomes quantifiable.

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 2026-09-04

Bull factors

Lamp Mix Lifting Unit Prices

Wider adoption of LED and micro lens array lamps is structurally raising the lamp content value per vehicle. Samsung Securities said in a May 2026 report that the average selling price of second-generation Palisade and Telluride headlamps is KRW 430,000, about 40% above the prior model.

The bull case starts from this structure, in which revenue can grow on pricing and mix alone even without a large rise in vehicle output. Indeed, the operating margin was 10.4% in Q1 2026 and 9.2% in Q2, both above the 7.8% recorded for full-year 2025.

From Parts To Modules And Contract Assembly

Per the 2026 sustainability report, SL secured body panel work for ODIE, the Spot successor, leveraging its Spot leg assembly technology.

For Hyundai Robotics Lab's MobED it won not only components such as lidar sensors and battery pack assemblies but also finished-robot assembly, with the report saying mass production is due to begin soon. Samsung Securities said the company also handles battery packs, lidar modules and contract manufacturing for PluD.

Moving up from single parts to modules and assembly raises the order value per unit, but the current revenue contribution is still early-stage and not yet quantified in filings.

Customer Diversification And Balance-Sheet Improvement

Dependence on Hyundai Motor Group remains high, but GM lamp awards have continued and the company added headlamp projects for BMW and Mini new and facelift models last year. Hana Securities said large-scale lamp supply to a German premium carmaker begins from the end of 2026.

Financially, the debt-to-equity ratio fell from 71.8% in 2022 to 50.7% in 2025, and 2025 operating cash flow of KRW 508.5bn exceeded that year's operating profit of KRW 407.1bn. The 2025 payout ratio was tallied at 41.0%, a higher level of shareholder returns than before.

Bear factors

Net Profit Diverging From Operating Profit

Operating profit rose to KRW 407.1bn in 2025 from KRW 395.2bn a year earlier, yet net profit attributable to owners fell 15.6% to KRW 310.8bn from KRW 368.4bn. That implies leakage below the operating line, so non-operating items and tax burdens need checking.

Part of the sharp net profit recovery in the first half of 2026 also reflects one-offs, with Samsung Securities noting a one-time compensation payment in Q1 tied to GM scrapping an EV project. The key question is the underlying run-rate excluding such items.

78% Lamp Concentration And Single-Group Linkage

The 2025 mix of 78.2% lamps and 12.2% electrification makes this effectively close to a single-product company. Its very high share of lamps supplied to Hyundai Motor Group in North America and India is a strength but equally a customer-concentration risk.

If Hyundai and Kia production plans or specific model sales wobble, there is little buffer. Competitive pressure is already visible in India, where Hana Securities reported SL Lumax net profit fell 38% in Q1 2026.

Second-Half Cost Concentration And Tariffs

Historically, wage-settlement costs booked heavily into the second half have repeatedly swung quarterly margins. Q3 2025 is a case in point, with operating profit of KRW 68.4bn and a 5.2% margin versus KRW 113.5bn in Q4 of the same year.

Tariffs are another variable: Hanwha Investment & Securities said in a late-2025 report that the confirmed 15% rate would cut the annual impact to about KRW 25bn, but that item can shift again with the policy environment. The robotics segment is still too small to offset swings in core-business costs or tariffs.

Risk factors

Customer Concentration And End Demand

Most revenue comes from a small number of carmakers, chiefly Hyundai Motor Group and GM. Strong sales of large SUVs such as the Palisade and Telluride have been the main driver of recent margin improvement, so softer demand for those models would also reduce high-ASP lamp volumes.

Slower EV demand has helped a hybrid-weighted lineup, but cancellations or delays in customers' electrification programs can create recovery burdens on related investment.

Trade Policy And Currency

US tariffs actually compressed profitability in 2025, and because they apply to knock-down parts shipped to the US entity, changes in the rate translate directly into margin swings. Analysts noted the burden eased once the rate settled at 15%, but trade policy remains subject to revision.

With a high overseas-entity weighting, moves in the won as well as emerging-market currencies such as the Indian rupee and Mexican peso also affect consolidated results.

New-Business Execution Risk

Robot component awards are confirmed, but their revenue and profit contribution is not disclosed as a separate segment, making the scale hard to verify. Atlas-related volumes are reported to be at the discussion stage, and the body module supplier discussed in the market has not been disclosed.

If customers' robot commercialization schedules slip, the payback timing on related equipment and R&D spending would also be pushed out. With R&D reaching 4.8% of revenue in 2025, delayed new-business results would linger as a fixed-cost burden.

What to watch next

Late October to early November 2026
Q3 2026 results filing. Third quarters have repeatedly seen margins compressed by concentrated wage-settlement costs, with a 5.2% operating margin in Q3 2025, so the key check is how much of the 9-10% first-half margin is retained.
Q4 2026
Whether the large-scale lamp supply to a German premium carmaker that Hana Securities said starts at end-2026 actually begins, and at what initial volume. Winning new European customers is a checkable indicator of reduced dependence on Hyundai Motor Group.
Second half of 2026
Whether supply for the second-generation Boston Dynamics Spot starts and whether MobED and PluD work for Hyundai Robotics Lab enters mass production. The timing and scale at which robot parts begin to be recognized as revenue should be verified in IR materials and filings.
December 2026 to January 2027
The final achievement rate against the KRW 1.6tn annual new-order target. Worth watching how quickly it filled from 30% through April and how the split among GM, Hyundai Motor Group and European customers shifted, alongside whether customers' robot roadmaps get more concrete at CES 2027.
February to March 2027
Confirmed full-year 2026 results and the dividend decision, plus progress on the corporate value enhancement plan adopted in March 2026. The checks are whether the 41.0% payout ratio level seen for 2025 is sustained and whether return policies become more specific.

Overall view

SL Corporation's recent earnings trend is relatively clear. Operating profit bottomed at KRW 68.4bn (5.2% margin) in Q3 2025, then recovered through KRW 113.5bn in Q4 2025, KRW 143.8bn (10.4%) in Q1 2026 and KRW 125.8bn (9.2%) in Q2 2026, taking first-half operating profit to KRW 269.6bn.

The recovery is attributed to higher lamp unit prices from wider LED and micro lens array adoption, North American large-SUV volumes, and the settled lower tariff rate.

However, Q1 2026 included items such as one-time compensation tied to GM scrapping an EV project, so the underlying run-rate should be separated from one-offs, and it is worth remembering that owners' net profit fell 15.6% in 2025 even as operating profit rose.

Robot orders have broadened to include body panels for Boston Dynamics' ODIE and lidar modules, battery pack assemblies and contract assembly for Hyundai Robotics Lab's MobED and PluD, but with no separate segment disclosure the scale remains hard to verify.

On the other side sit equally weighted negatives: 78.2% product concentration in lamps, linkage to Hyundai Motor Group's sales cycle, the pattern of second-half cost concentration, and intensifying competition in India.

What ultimately needs verification is whether first-half margins hold through Q3 and Q4 2026, whether German premium supply and robot mass production show up in revenue on schedule, and the pace of progress toward the KRW 1.6tn annual order target. This report is for informational purposes and contains no buy or sell recommendation or target price.

Sources

Korea Exchange (KRX) — Prices · Market Cap · Volume
FSS electronic disclosure system (DART) — Financial statements · Dividend filings

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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.