Kolmar Holdings

Kolmar Holdings, established in 1990 and converted into a holding company via spin-off in 2012, sits at the top of the Kolmar Group's governance structure.

The company holds Kolmar Korea, Kolmar BNH, and HK inno.N as subsidiaries, earning its own revenue from trademark licensing fees, management service fees, dividends, and rental income.

On a standalone basis, its revenue mix is composed of roughly 30.6% rental income, 26.4% service income, 19.1% dividend income, and 15.6% trademark income, reflecting a classic pure-holding-company model.

Its subsidiaries operate across distinct industries spanning health functional foods, cosmetics ODM, ethical pharmaceuticals, and packaging.

Kolmar Korea is a leading cosmetics ODM operator running domestic and overseas production sites, while HK inno.N combines its flagship reflux-disease drug K-CAB with a health-and-beauty (H&B) business.

Kolmar BNH focuses on health functional food ODM, and has recently transferred its cosmetics-related subsidiaries and business units to the Kolmar Korea group as part of a portfolio realignment.

In 2026, the Kolmar Group was newly designated as a large business group by Korea's antitrust regulator, with HK inno.N, Kolmar Korea, Kolmar Holdings, and Kolmar BNH forming the group's asset base in that order of size.

Kolmar Korea also lost its intermediate holding-company status under fair trade law, leaving Kolmar Holdings as the group's sole holding company and simplifying the overall structure.

Consolidated revenue moved from KRW 649.9bn in 2022 and KRW 637.3bn in 2023 to KRW 676.7bn in 2024, before contracting to KRW 630.1bn in 2025. Operating profit, by contrast, fell to KRW 16.87bn in 2023 from KRW 33.0bn in 2022, then recovered clearly to KRW 38.1bn in 2024 and KRW 47.7bn in 2025.

As a result, the operating margin, which had dropped to 2.6% in 2023, improved to 5.6% in 2024 and 7.6% in 2025. Net income attributable to owners, however, posted two consecutive years of losses at -KRW 6.09bn in 2022 and -KRW 3.72bn in 2023, before turning positive at KRW 24.57bn in 2024 and KRW 11.14bn in 2025.

Quarterly data show even sharper swings: owners' net income reached KRW 35.73bn in Q2 2025 but shrank abruptly to KRW 2.02bn in Q3 2025, then swung to a net loss of KRW 26.97bn in Q4 2025. It rebounded sharply again to KRW 27.83bn in Q1 2026 and KRW 31.62bn in Q2 2026.

Operating profit rose steadily on a quarterly basis to KRW 20.4bn in Q1 2026 and KRW 25.34bn in Q2 2026, while net income followed a divergent path driven heavily by equity-method results and one-off items.

Over the trailing four quarters (Q3 2025 through Q2 2026), cumulative owners' net income totaled KRW 34.49bn, showing that despite large quarterly swings the annual trend has remained profitable.

As a holding company, Kolmar Holdings' performance is directly linked to the business conditions of its three main subsidiaries: Kolmar Korea, HK inno.N, and Kolmar BNH.

In cosmetics ODM, Kolmar Korea posted consolidated revenue of KRW 861.3bn (up 17.9% year over year) and operating profit of KRW 110.3bn (up 50.2% year over year) in the second quarter of 2026, beating consensus, driven by expanding global exports from domestic indie brands.

However, its US and Canadian operations continue to face delayed profitability recovery due to reduced orders from major clients and fixed-cost burdens from a new plant ramp-up.

In pharmaceuticals, HK inno.N's reflux-disease treatment K-CAB has achieved the top spot in domestic outpatient prescriptions and has been licensed or exported to 53 countries globally, with launches already completed in 18 of them.

In health functional foods, Kolmar BNH has maintained export competitiveness centered on its HemoHim brand while divesting non-core cosmetics businesses to refocus its portfolio on health functional foods and healthcare.

Because the three subsidiaries span cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and health foods, the group's overall exposure is diversified across distinct industry cycles rather than concentrated in one sector.

At the same time, the group's relatively high level of intra-group transactions has drawn regulatory attention following its designation as the first large business group in the cosmetics ODM industry.

HK inno.N has submitted a New Drug Application for K-CAB in the United States through its partner Braintree, seeking simultaneous approval across three indications including non-erosive reflux disease and erosive esophagitis treatment and maintenance therapy.

In Europe, the company is negotiating a licensing-out deal with major pharmaceutical partners, which could generate one-off upfront payments once finalized.

As a follow-on pipeline, Ecnoglutide, a GLP-1-class obesity and diabetes treatment licensed in from China's Sciwind, is undergoing domestic Phase 3 trials, alongside development of an autoimmune disease treatment.

Kolmar BNH is using proceeds from its cosmetics business transfer to invest roughly KRW 20bn in a dedicated oral-care subsidiary as part of a push into health-food and healthcare-centered new businesses.

At the group level, the resolution of the governance dispute and the large business group designation are expected to accelerate portfolio restructuring under Vice Chairman Yoon Sang-hyun's unified leadership.

However, the holding company's own net income is likely to remain volatile on a quarterly basis going forward, given its dependence on subsidiaries' equity-method results and one-off asset or equity transactions.