Higen Rnm

Higen R&M traces its roots to LG Electronics' motor division founded in 1963, and it scaled up after acquiring Otis Elevator Korea's industrial motor business in 2008, giving it more than six decades of motor manufacturing experience.

The company changed its name from Higen Motor to Higen R&M in October 2023 to signal its expansion into robotics and mobility, and it listed on KOSDAQ in June 2025.

Its business is organized into general-purpose motors, servo motors/drives, robotic actuators, and EV motors/inverters; as of the first quarter of 2025, general-purpose motors accounted for 82.1% of revenue, servo motors and actuators 12.6%, and EV motors 5.3%.

General-purpose motors are AC motors used to drive pumps, fans, and compressors across power plants, water treatment, and petrochemical facilities, and the company operates in an oligopolistic domestic market alongside Hyosung Heavy Industries and HD Hyundai Electric.

The servo motor unit supplies low-voltage motors and servo systems for collaborative robots and autonomous mobile robots to robot makers and precision manufacturing lines in semiconductors and batteries.

Robotic actuators still represent a small share of sales but are the segment the company is cultivating as its future growth driver, leveraging vertically integrated design and production of motors, reducers, encoders, and drives.

The EV motor and inverter unit targets niche electrification demand not served by full-line automakers, such as golf carts, small buses, agricultural machinery, and compact EVs.

Production combines the Changwon headquarters plant with a factory in Qingdao, China, to balance technological capability with cost competitiveness.

Annual revenue declined for three straight years, from KRW 77.2 billion in 2023 to KRW 75.9 billion in 2024 and KRW 73.5 billion in 2025.

Over the same period, operating profit swung from a gain of KRW 4.3 billion in 2023 to losses of KRW 0.4 billion in 2024 and KRW 8.9 billion in 2025, while owners' net income moved from a gain of KRW 2.6 billion in 2023 to losses of KRW 1.1 billion in 2024 and KRW 7.1 billion in 2025.

On a quarterly basis, the operating loss actually widened from KRW 1.4 billion in Q2 2025 (on revenue of KRW 16.7 billion) to KRW 2.1 billion in Q3 (revenue KRW 15.9 billion), and further to KRW 3.1 billion in Q4 even as revenue rose to KRW 22.8 billion.

Q1 2026 posted the largest loss of the recent five-quarter window at KRW 3.4 billion on revenue of KRW 18.6 billion, but Q2 2026 showed the loss shrinking to less than half that level, at KRW 1.5 billion, on revenue of KRW 20.8 billion.

According to a robotics trade publication, first-half 2026 consolidated revenue reached KRW 39.4 billion, and the Q2 operating loss more than halved from KRW 3.3 billion in Q1 to KRW 1.5 billion, showing a clear recovery trend per company remarks.

The earnings weakness has been attributed to declining orders for general-purpose motors amid a slowdown in construction and capital spending, and on a nine-month cumulative basis through Q3 2025, consolidated revenue fell 10.1% year over year with both operating profit and net income turning negative, as the pump, compressor, and blower end markets grew but profitability deteriorated due to intensified competition.

On the balance sheet side, however, owners' equity has expanded steadily, from KRW 45.3 billion in 2023 to KRW 67.6 billion in 2024 and KRW 106.2 billion in 2025, driving the debt ratio down from 133.6% to 75.8% and then to 55.7% over the same period.

Separately, after an adverse internal-control opinion in March 2025, the company received a corrected audit report with a clean opinion last month, leading to removal from the investment-caution designation and reclassification to the mid-cap division, having addressed accounting concerns early through restructured closing controls and additional specialist staffing with Samjong KPMG, the company said.

In the general-purpose motor market, Higen R&M holds roughly the third-largest domestic market share and operates within an oligopoly where it together with Hyosung Heavy Industries and HD Hyundai Electric controls about 80% of the domestic market, keeping competitive intensity relatively contained, though the segment is currently passing through a cycle of reduced orders tied to weaker construction and capex activity.

Domestically, a minimum efficiency standard for motors has required IE3-grade equipment since 2018, with phased mandatory adoption of the IE4 grade expected to begin in 2026, making replacement demand from tighter regulation a key swing factor for the general-motor business going forward.

In robotics, actuators serve as the core module driving robot joints, with 25 to 30 units (up to 60 in premium models) used per humanoid robot, making them a large share of bill-of-materials cost.

However, the robot market has not yet reached scale, so unit costs cannot be lowered through mass production, and robot-related companies are generally posting losses, meaning the actuator business's earnings contribution remains at an early stage.

Competitively, unlike other actuator makers that outsource reducers and encoders, Higen R&M is positioned as the only domestic company capable of supplying an internalized smart actuator with self-designed and self-manufactured motors, drives, reducers, and servo motors.

The EV motor segment, targeting specialty electrification demand not served by full-line automakers, remains small in revenue terms but is classified as a gradually growing area.

The company continues to build concrete evidence of expansion in robotics.

It was finally selected as the lead agency for a new robot industry core technology development project under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, running for 41 months from August this year through December 2029 with total R&D funding of KRW 8.1 billion, forming a consortium with the Korea Institute of Robot and Convergence, Samsung Heavy Industries' RX Center, and OpenPath Robotics for demonstration at Samsung Heavy Industries' Geoje shipyard.

The target robot is a rigid humanoid robot standing 170cm tall with a payload capacity of over 40kg, aimed at heavy-duty work environments such as shipyards.

On external engagement, the company showcased next-generation robot drive solutions at the Automate 2026 exhibition in North America in June 2026, and in the same month signed a technology transfer agreement with Gachon University for humanoid robot motor technology.

On the export front, reports indicate that following a USD 5 million Export Tower award in 2025, the company confirmed a USD 10 million Export Tower in 2026, continuing its earnings recovery trend.

For the general-motor business, whether replacement demand materializes will depend on how concretely Korea's IE4 regulatory timeline is finalized.

The company has expanded automation capacity for robotic actuator production at its Changwon headquarters, but the timing of actual mass-production orders hinges on how quickly the humanoid robot market commercializes.

Having resolved its internal-control issue and moved to the mid-cap listing division, the consistency of future disclosures and earnings reports is likely to remain a point of investor attention.