PER, EPS, PBR and BPS are calculated in-house from the last 4 quarters (2025Q3–2026Q2) · Dividend yield is based on ₩1,400 per share · Prices as of the 2026-10-02 close
AhnLab has posted four straight years of revenue and operating profit improvement in Korea's integrated security market, while its Saudi joint venture Rakeen is showing both progress and risk in its overseas expansion.
2025 consolidated revenue of KRW 267.7bn and operating profit of KRW 33.3bn both rose year over year, with operating margin improving to 12.4%
First-half 2026 export revenue exceeded KRW 10bn for the first time, lifting the export ratio to 8%, driven by the Saudi joint venture Rakeen
The Saudi JV Rakeen expanded sales but fell into capital impairment in 2025, adding uncertainty to the overseas expansion strategy
Second-quarter 2026 operating profit rose 55.6% year over year, but net income declined due to a high base from one-off financial asset valuation gains a year earlier
Government-led security framework transitions such as N2SF and zero trust are acting as a structural driver of domestic public and financial sector demand
AhnLab is Korea's leading integrated security company, having expanded from its original V3 antivirus software into endpoint detection and response (EDR), extended detection and response (XDR), and next-generation firewall products.
In its security solutions segment, endpoint security platforms have expanded their reference base in the public and financial sectors while network security products have posted high growth rates, contributing to earnings improvement.
Its next-generation firewall AhnLab XTG, which integrates ZTNA, SD-WAN and lightweight VPN, addresses demand from public institutions and large enterprises adapting to the national network security framework (N2SF) and zero trust architectures.
The company is also rolling out an agentic AI security platform, AhnLab AI PLUS, which combines accumulated threat data with a specialized large language model, and has embedded a conversational AI assistant called Annie into XDR and other core products.
Overseas, growth is centered on its Japan and China subsidiaries and Rakeen, a joint venture formed with SITE, a company owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund; AhnLab holds a 25% stake in Rakeen, which is based in Riyadh and supplies endpoint, network and XDR products to local public and private customers.
In Southeast Asia, AhnLab secured its first win for the AhnLab TIP threat intelligence platform in Singapore and won V3, EPP, EDR and forensic service contracts with Indonesian financial firms, while also expanding its footprint in Taiwan, Malaysia and Vietnam.
As a result, the export ratio, which had stayed in the 2-5% range for nearly a decade, rose to 8% in the first half of 2026, with export revenue exceeding KRW 10 billion for the first time.
In the domestic market, numerous specialized vendors including Fasoo and ESTsecurity compete over zero trust and N2SF-related solutions, prompting AhnLab to differentiate itself through its integrated platform and global certification track record.
| Quarter | Revenue | Operating profit | Op. margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025Q2 | ₩62.3B | ₩3.5B | 5.6% |
| 2025Q3 | ₩64.5B | ₩7.9B | 12.2% |
| 2025Q4 | ₩83.6B | ₩20.9B | 25.0% |
| 2026Q1 | ₩59.1B | ₩1.9B | 3.3% |
| 2026Q2 | ₩71.3B | ₩5.4B | 7.5% |
| Year | Revenue | Operating profit | Net income (parent) | Op. margin | ROE | Debt-to-equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | ₩228B | ₩27B | ₩14.2B | 11.8% | 5.5% | 33.0% |
| 2023 | ₩239.2B | ₩26.4B | ₩34.7B | 11.0% | 12.3% | 31.8% |
| 2024 | ₩260.6B | ₩27.7B | ₩32.4B | 10.6% | 8.9% | 26.0% |
| 2025 | ₩267.7B | ₩33.3B | ₩51.5B | 12.4% | 13.8% | 29.6% |
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
AhnLab's consolidated revenue rose for four consecutive years, from KRW 228.0bn in 2022 to KRW 239.2bn in 2023, KRW 260.6bn in 2024 and KRW 267.7bn in 2025.
Operating margin declined from 11.8% in 2022 to 10.6% in 2024 before recovering to 12.4% in 2025, helped by expanding demand for EDR and MDR-centered security operations.
Net income attributable to owners jumped from KRW 14.2bn in 2022 to KRW 34.7bn in 2023, eased slightly to KRW 32.4bn in 2024, then surged again to KRW 51.5bn in 2025, a pattern that reflects both operating improvement and the influence of non-operating factors such as financial gains and losses.
On a quarterly basis, fourth-quarter 2025 revenue of KRW 83.6bn and operating profit of KRW 20.9bn were the highest of the year, which appears to reflect seasonality tied to year-end budget execution in the public and financial sectors.
By contrast, first-quarter 2026 reverted to a seasonally weaker pattern, with revenue of KRW 59.1bn and operating profit of KRW 1.9bn. Second-quarter 2026 revenue reached KRW 71.3bn and operating profit KRW 5.4bn, up 14.5% and 55.6% year over year, respectively.
However, net income attributable to owners for the same quarter fell to KRW 6.4bn from KRW 14.3bn a year earlier, a decline mainly attributed to a high base effect from large non-current financial asset valuation gains booked in the second quarter of 2025.
This pattern illustrates that a gap can open between operating performance and net income trends, underscoring the need to distinguish between the two when interpreting results.
Korea's cybersecurity industry is in a phase where the role of integrated security vendors is growing amid increasingly sophisticated AI-driven attacks and rising ransomware and targeted attacks.
The government is pushing a transition to a national network security framework (N2SF) that moves away from physical network segregation toward differentiated controls based on data sensitivity and access subjects, with a second-phase pilot program allocating KRW 4.5bn for six models and KRW 990mn for a demonstration project running from May to December.
This policy shift is a structural driver for adoption of detection and response solutions such as EDR, NDR and XDR, though confusion persists in the field over setting classification criteria and scope of application.
AhnLab competes in this market alongside vendors such as Fasoo and ESTsecurity in supplying zero trust and N2SF-related solutions, positioning its integrated platform and multiple global certifications, including MITRE ATT&CK, AV-TEST and VB100, as competitive strengths.
Overseas, Saudi Arabia is expanding digital transformation and cybersecurity demand under its national Vision 2030, positioning the Rakeen joint venture with PIF-owned SITE as a strategic foothold to capture that trend.
However, Rakeen reportedly fell into capital impairment after posting a net loss exceeding its total assets in its first full year of substantive operations, introducing a variable in the pace and manner of expansion into the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) market.
AhnLab's existing overseas subsidiaries in Japan and China remain modest in scale but show steady growth, so the company's overseas business can be viewed as a combination of Saudi-centered growth and stable expansion of existing footholds.
AhnLab has set its 2026 management policy as AXELERATE, combining AX (AI transformation) with Accelerate, and designated AI-First Transformation as a key task.
Under this plan, the company intends to expand the scope of its agentic AI security platform AhnLab AI PLUS and its conversational assistant Annie beyond XDR to its full product and platform lineup.
The Saudi joint venture Rakeen launched network products including the next-generation firewall Rakeen NGFW and intrusion prevention solution Rakeen IPS in the second half of 2025, which the company says helped drive growth in its overseas revenue share.
In Southeast Asia, building on contract wins in Singapore and Indonesia, AhnLab plans to gradually expand its footholds in Taiwan, Malaysia and Vietnam, while domestically it is strengthening consulting, solution and managed security service offerings tailored to N2SF and zero trust transition demand.
However, if Rakeen's capital impairment is not resolved, whether SITE, its largest shareholder, provides additional funding remains a variable that could determine the pace of future expansion in Saudi Arabia.
Since the government's second-phase N2SF pilot support program runs through December 2026, the pace of adoption and budget allocation after the program ends could serve as an indicator of domestic demand direction going into 2027.
The company has reaffirmed a policy of prioritizing mid- to long-term competitiveness over short-term results, making the timing of visible overseas performance and the pace of domestic policy-driven demand key variables for future earnings trends.
AhnLab's share price appears to be forming in a range that reflects both the ongoing earnings recovery and expectations around overseas expansion.
Over the past several years, the stock has often traded at double-digit multiples during phases of profit recovery, and there have been periods when it carried a modest premium to book value.
On dividends, the company has continued annual cash distributions, though the yield itself is generally viewed as not particularly high, consistent with a software sector that tends to prioritize growth investment.
Variables that could influence valuation going forward include whether the capital impairment at the Saudi joint venture Rakeen is resolved, the sustainability of operating-based earnings once one-off financial gains and losses are stripped out, and the pace at which N2SF and zero trust-related domestic demand spreads. How these factors feed through into future results could shift the market's basis for evaluation.
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
First-half 2026 export revenue exceeded KRW 10 billion for the first time, lifting the export ratio to 8%. Transactions with the Saudi JV Rakeen more than doubled from KRW 2.2bn to KRW 5.3bn within a year, while the Japan and China subsidiaries also posted double-digit growth.
This can be read as a structural improvement signal for an export ratio that had been stuck in the 2-5% range for nearly a decade.
The government's push to transition to the N2SF network security framework is a structural factor increasing demand for detection and response solutions such as EDR, NDR and XDR.
AhnLab is addressing this demand through its XTG next-generation firewall and EDR/XDR product lines, and the company stated that related product revenue grew more than 100% year over year in the second quarter of 2026.
If policy adoption continues to spread, there is room for the order base in the public and financial sectors to widen.
AhnLab is expanding AI-based detection technology across major solutions such as V3, MDS and EDR, centered on its agentic AI security platform AhnLab AI PLUS. Having connected its conversational AI assistant Annie to XDR, the company plans to broaden its application to its full product and platform lineup.
In an environment where AI-driven attacks are becoming more sophisticated, AI-based defense capability can serve as both a product differentiator and a customer lock-in factor.
Second-quarter 2026 operating profit rose 55.6% year over year, yet net income attributable to owners actually declined. This is mainly attributed to a high base effect from large non-current financial asset valuation gains booked in the second quarter of 2025. It illustrates that operating performance alone cannot reliably predict the net income trend.
The joint venture Rakeen, which was positioned as a bridgehead for expansion into the Middle East and North Africa, reportedly fell into capital impairment just two years after its launch.
This followed a net loss exceeding total assets in its first full year of operations, and it remains unconfirmed whether SITE, the largest shareholder, will provide additional support.
While transaction volume with the JV is growing, whether the JV itself can secure financial stability is a separate variable to monitor.
Although the export ratio has risen to 8%, most revenue still depends on the domestic market. AhnLab's U.S. subsidiary closed in 2016, and the company has a history of not achieving notable results in overseas business until recently.
Domestically, numerous vendors including Fasoo and ESTsecurity compete over zero trust and N2SF-related solutions, meaning price and technology competition is likely to persist.
If the capital impairment at Saudi JV Rakeen is not resolved, additional capital injection or business restructuring may become necessary. In such a case, AhnLab, which holds a 25% stake, cannot rule out equity-method losses or an added investment burden. There is also room for the pace and approach of its MENA expansion strategy to be readjusted.
AhnLab's net income has shown large quarterly swings due to non-operating factors such as financial asset valuation gains and losses. The high base effect from large valuation gains in the second quarter of 2025 leading to a net income decline in the second quarter of 2026 is a representative example. Similar patterns could recur depending on future financial market fluctuations.
N2SF adoption is still in an early stage, with ongoing confusion in the field over setting classification criteria and scope of application, meaning the pace of policy diffusion could unfold differently than expected.
At the same time, numerous domestic security vendors are competing with similar solutions, leaving room for intensified price pressure or market share competition.
The expected timing for third-quarter 2026 provisional earnings disclosure, when the overseas revenue share including Rakeen, operating margin trend, and any one-off financial gains or losses should be checked.
The scheduled end of the government's second-phase N2SF pilot support program, whose outcomes and budget allocation could indicate the pace of domestic policy-driven demand diffusion in 2027.
Around the time of the FY2026 annual earnings disclosure, this is when follow-up disclosures or reports on whether the capital impairment at Saudi JV Rakeen has been resolved and whether SITE has provided additional funding should be checked.
Saudi IT events such as the LEAP technology exhibition in Riyadh can provide a check on Rakeen's order wins and the pace of business expansion in the MENA region.
AhnLab has demonstrated a stable growth foundation in Korea's integrated security market, with revenue and operating profit rising steadily since 2022.
In the first half of 2026, the export ratio climbed to a record 8%, and overseas expansion centered on the Saudi JV Rakeen showed a clear revenue contribution for the first time.
At the same time, Rakeen's capital impairment, net income's dependence on one-off financial gains and losses, and intensifying domestic competition remain variables to monitor going forward.
The policy tailwind from the N2SF and zero trust transition and the technological direction of AI-native product transformation are core pillars of the mid- to long-term growth story, but it may take time for these to be reflected steadily in results.
For investors, it would be useful to track, in future quarterly results, the source of any gap between operating profit and net income, the sustainability of overseas revenue, and whether Rakeen's finances normalize.
This report is for informational purposes only and does not include a buy or sell recommendation or a target price.
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.