PER, EPS, PBR and BPS are calculated in-house from the last 4 quarters (2025Q3–2026Q2) · Dividend yield is based on ₩0 per share · Prices as of the 2026-10-02 close
APS is transitioning from an equity-income-driven holding structure toward a materials and parts operating company through the absorption merger of ZenithWorld.
The absorption merger of ZenithWorld (semiconductor/display parts cleaning and coating) was completed in April 2026, with parts revenue accounting for about 40% of consolidated sales from Q1 2026.
Consolidated operating losses have continued for four straight years from 2022 to 2025, but the loss size narrowed sharply from -KRW 22.6bn in 2024 to -KRW 6.8bn in 2025.
Owners' net income surged to around KRW 9.8bn in Q1 2026, aided by equity-method gains, but swung back to a loss of about -KRW 2.3bn in Q2 2026.
The company has licensed the lightweight, high-strength 'Eco-Almag' alloy technology from the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology and is pursuing expansion into defense, battery, and mobility applications.
The earnings of equity-method affiliates such as AP Systems, Nextin, and APS Innovation (formerly D&ETI) continue to directly affect APS's net income.
APS started as a software business in 1994, spun off its semiconductor and display equipment division into AP Systems in 2017, and changed its name to the current one in 2023 as an operating holding company.
It currently runs holding, Global Sourcing, software (Konic Automation), skin-beauty medical device, and semiconductor parts/equipment segments, with nine subsidiaries and twelve sub-subsidiaries.
The absorption merger of ZenithWorld, decided in February 2026 and completed with a merger date of April 24, 2026, integrated precision cleaning and coating and electrostatic chuck (ESC) businesses for semiconductor and display parts into the parent.
As of Q1 2026, consolidated revenue was led by the software segment Konic Automation at 41.2% and the parts segment (formerly ZenithWorld) at 40.0%, together accounting for most of sales.
Equity-method affiliates with significant impact on net income include AP Systems, which supplies OLED and semiconductor equipment; APS Innovation (formerly D&ETI), which handles battery notching and display inspection equipment; and Nextin, which supplies semiconductor front-end inspection equipment.
However, Nextin's largest shareholder changed to KCGI following a 2024 stake sale, reducing APS's ownership and influence there compared to the past.
More recently, the company licensed the lightweight, high-strength 'Eco-Almag' aluminum alloy technology from the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology and is exploring expansion into defense, battery housings, and mobility.
Comparable companies include other semiconductor/display-related holding-type firms such as Wonik Holdings, Innox, and Humax Holdings.
| Quarter | Revenue | Operating profit | Op. margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025Q2 | ₩20B | -₩2.6B | −13.2% |
| 2025Q3 | ₩19.3B | -₩1B | −5.3% |
| 2025Q4 | ₩26.3B | -₩300M | −1.1% |
| 2026Q1 | ₩20.9B | -₩700M | −3.5% |
| 2026Q2 | ₩17.9B | -₩3.9B | −22.1% |
| Year | Revenue | Operating profit | Net income (parent) | Op. margin | ROE | Debt-to-equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | ₩40.8B | -₩15.3B | ₩9.2B | −37.4% | 4.7% | 72.9% |
| 2023 | ₩41B | -₩18.6B | ₩12.8B | −45.3% | 6.1% | 63.1% |
| 2024 | ₩94B | -₩22.6B | -₩1.3B | −24.1% | −0.7% | 83.1% |
| 2025 | ₩84.9B | -₩6.8B | -₩3.5B | −8.1% | −1.8% | 72.6% |
Consolidated basis (financial statements including subsidiaries) · Final figures from DART filings · Net income attributable to owners of the parent · Data as of 2026-08-23
Annual revenue stood around KRW 40.8bn in 2022 and KRW 41.0bn in 2023, jumped to KRW 94.0bn in 2024, then fell 9.7% to KRW 84.9bn in 2025.
Consolidated operating losses widened from -KRW 15.3bn in 2022 to -KRW 18.6bn in 2023 and -KRW 22.6bn in 2024, before narrowing sharply to -KRW 6.8bn in 2025, with the operating margin improving from -24.1% in 2024 to -8.1% in 2025.
In contrast, owners' net income was positive at +KRW 9.2bn in 2022 and +KRW 12.8bn in 2023, but turned negative at -KRW 1.3bn in 2024 and -KRW 3.5bn in 2025, showing a divergence between improving operating results and the bottom line.
On a quarterly basis, Q2 2025 was weak with revenue of KRW 20.0bn, an operating loss of KRW 2.6bn, and an owners' net loss of KRW 6.4bn, but Q3 (revenue KRW 19.3bn, operating loss KRW 1.0bn, net income KRW 1.2bn) and Q4 (revenue KRW 26.3bn, operating loss KRW 0.3bn, net income KRW 1.7bn) saw narrower operating losses and a return to net profit.
In Q1 2026, revenue was KRW 20.9bn with an operating loss of KRW 0.7bn, while owners' net income surged to about KRW 9.8bn; according to a Newspim report from May 2026, this was mainly driven by roughly KRW 5.1bn in equity-method gains.
However, Q2 2026 saw revenue decline to KRW 17.9bn with the operating loss widening again to KRW 3.9bn and owners' net loss returning to about -KRW 2.3bn, underscoring how non-operating factors such as equity-method gains drive large swings in quarterly bottom-line results.
Owners' net income summed over the trailing four quarters (Q3 2025 through Q2 2026) came to roughly KRW 10.4bn, largely driven by the one-off-like gain recorded in Q1 2026.
Operating cash flow was negative for four consecutive years from 2022 to 2025 (-KRW 12.9bn, -KRW 12.1bn, -KRW 11.3bn, and -KRW 11.7bn respectively), indicating the core business has yet to show a clear improvement in cash generation.
APS's results are heavily influenced by investment cycles in the semiconductor and display equipment and parts industries.
Equity-method affiliate AP Systems posted Q1 2026 revenue of KRW 196.1bn and operating profit of KRW 18.0bn, up 61% and 135% year-on-year respectively, with the company citing continued expansion of 8th-generation OLED production lines and new investment, particularly in China.
Growing demand for high-value memory such as HBM, driven by the spread of AI servers and data centers, is frequently cited as a rationale for new investment among semiconductor equipment and parts makers.
Nextin, however, saw revenue and operating profit fall 50% and 82% year-on-year respectively in Q1 2025, illustrating that even within the same semiconductor equipment and parts value chain, the perceived business cycle can differ significantly by customer investment timing and product line.
Parts areas handled by APS and its affiliates, such as fine metal masks (FMM), electrostatic chucks (ESC), and cleaning/coating, are tied to localization demand but also face a market with numerous domestic and overseas competitors.
APS Innovation, which handles battery notching equipment among other products, posted 22.5% revenue growth and 142.0% operating profit growth year-on-year in Q1 2026, benefiting from expanded battery-related investment.
Overall, the APS group's business portfolio spans multiple end markets including semiconductors, displays, and batteries, which can allow weakness in one cycle to be offset by strength elsewhere, but also means the predictability of equity-method gains and losses can be lower when individual affiliates' results diverge.
Following the ZenithWorld merger, the company expects a fuller-year revenue contribution from the semiconductor/display parts business (cleaning, coating, ESC) from the second half of 2026 onward, with the merger process concluded on April 30, 2026.
Management stated it plans to combine ZenithWorld's customer network and cleaning/coating expertise with its Eco-Almag and green hydrogen electrode businesses to grow into an integrated solutions provider spanning semiconductors, displays, batteries, and hydrogen.
Eco-Almag has entered an initial sales stage centered on a newly established materials business unit following the technology transfer agreement with the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, using group affiliates in semiconductor, display, and battery equipment manufacturing as test beds.
AP Systems has stated it expects mid-to-long-term growth in laser process equipment such as excimer laser annealing (ELA) and laser lift-off (LLO), amid expanding 8th-generation OLED investment centered on China, with an order backlog of KRW 186.4bn reported at the end of Q1 2026.
AP Systems is pursuing a three-year (2024-2026) shareholder return policy that allocates free cash flow and 30% of net income to dividends and share buybacks/cancellations, and the direction taken after this policy concludes could affect APS's equity-method income and dividend receipts as well.
However, since APS's own consolidated operating results have remained in the red for four straight years through 2025, whether the new business and parts integration lead to break-even at the core business level remains something to verify in upcoming quarterly results.
The stock trades at a level well below its self-calculated book value per share, with the price-to-book ratio sitting well under 1x.
The price-to-earnings ratio, when calculated on trailing four-quarter net income, comes out in the single digits, but this figure is heavily influenced by the one-off-like equity-method gain recorded in Q1 2026 and should be read with that context in mind.
The company has not paid dividends in recent years, which is a separate consideration from the net-asset discount when assessing shareholder returns.
With consolidated operating results in the red for multiple years while the bottom line swings between profit and loss quarter to quarter due to non-operating items such as equity-method gains, this volatility should be factored in when interpreting valuation metrics based on any single period's earnings.
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 2026-08-23
The ZenithWorld absorption merger brought semiconductor/display parts (cleaning, coating, ESC) into the parent, accounting for 40% of consolidated revenue as of Q1 2026. As revenue restructures around two pillars—parts and the software segment (Konic Automation)—dependence on any single business line could ease. The company is also pursuing synergies by combining cleaning/coating expertise with new business initiatives.
Based on the licensed lightweight, high-strength 'Eco-Almag' aluminum alloy technology, the company is seeking to expand into defense, battery housing, mobility, and other applications.
The ability to use group affiliates in semiconductor, display, and battery equipment as test beds is cited as a factor that could aid commercialization speed. However, this business is still at an early sales stage.
Consolidated operating losses narrowed sharply from -KRW 22.6bn in 2024 to -KRW 6.8bn in 2025, with the operating margin improving from -24.1% to -8.1%. Quarterly operating losses also generally narrowed from Q3 2025 onward.
There have also been instances where improved performance at affiliate AP Systems positively affected the bottom line through equity-method gains.
Consolidated operating results have been in the red for four consecutive years from 2022 to 2025. Operating cash flow was also negative for four straight years over the same period, indicating the core business's cash-generating ability has yet to show clear improvement.
Whether new businesses and parts integration will translate into an actual break-even remains to be confirmed by future results.
Owners' net income swung sharply from a surge of about KRW 9.8bn in Q1 2026 to a loss of about -KRW 2.3bn in Q2 2026, highlighting high quarter-to-quarter volatility in the bottom line. This largely reflects non-operating factors such as equity-method gains, underscoring a profit structure with limited predictability.
Annual owners' net income was also negative for two straight years, at -KRW 1.3bn in 2024 and -KRW 3.5bn in 2025.
The company has not paid dividends in recent years. In contrast, equity-method affiliate AP Systems is running its own shareholder return policy for 2024-2026, but this is a policy at the affiliate level, not at APS itself.
Recent treasury share disposals were also carried out for the purpose of paying merger consideration for ZenithWorld, which is different in nature from shareholder returns.
Restructuring of subsidiary stakes and business structures continues, including the ZenithWorld absorption merger and the 2024 sale of a Nextin stake to KCGI.
Such changes make revenue and profit structures difficult to predict, and the financial impact can vary significantly depending on the terms and timing of individual transactions. The possibility of further similar restructuring in the future cannot be ruled out.
The earnings of equity-method affiliates such as AP Systems, Nextin, and APS Innovation flow directly into APS's net income. Business conditions can differ significantly across affiliates (for example, Nextin's weak Q1 2025 results), and a simultaneous downturn among affiliates could negatively affect APS's net income.
Demand for semiconductor, display, and battery equipment and parts depends heavily on the timing and scale of customers' capital expenditure.
If expansion of Chinese OLED lines or memory makers' investment plans is delayed or scaled back, it could negatively affect both affiliate and parts-business revenue as well as equity-method income.
Check the preliminary Q3 2026 consolidated results — key points are whether the parts business's revenue contribution continues post-ZenithWorld integration and whether the operating-loss narrowing trend persists.
Watch for Q3 2026 earnings releases from equity-method affiliates AP Systems, Nextin, and APS Innovation, which will indicate the likely scale of APS's equity-method income.
Monitor disclosures and IR materials for the initial revenue generation of the Eco-Almag materials business and customer acquisition progress in defense, battery, and mobility applications.
Check whether AP Systems announces a follow-up policy after its 2024-2026 three-year shareholder return policy concludes, which is relevant to APS's equity-method income and dividend receipts.
Check the full-year 2026 (including Q4) consolidated results — the first full year with ZenithWorld fully consolidated, to confirm whether annual revenue and operating-loss improvement continued.
APS is transitioning from a holding company heavily dependent on equity-method income toward an operating company with a growing weight in parts and materials, driven by the ZenithWorld absorption merger.
Consolidated operating results were in the red for four consecutive years from 2022 to 2025, but the loss size shrank considerably in 2025, and the operating margin showed an improving trend.
However, the bottom line has been volatile quarter to quarter—turning profitable in Q1 2026 on a surge in equity-method gains before swinging back to a loss in Q2 2026—reflecting a structure heavily influenced by the results of affiliates such as AP Systems, Nextin, and APS Innovation.
The newly launched Eco-Almag materials business is at an early stage of expanding into defense, battery, and mobility applications, and its pace of commercialization still needs to be confirmed.
It is worth noting that the company has not paid dividends in recent years and operating cash flow has remained negative for multiple years.
Going forward, comprehensively tracking the parts business's quarterly revenue contribution, affiliate earnings, and progress on the new materials business will be important for assessing the outcome of the company's business transition.
Report written 2026-09-05 · Data as of 2026-09-04
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