KOSDAQSemiconductors183300

KoMiCo

₩34,450▼ 3.50%2026-10-02 close

Market Cap

₩1.7T

Turnover

₩14.8B

Volume

430,000 shares

Shares out.

51.4M

PER

32.1×

PBR

1.8×

EPS

₩783

Dividend Yield

—

PER, EPS, PBR and BPS are calculated in-house from the last 4 quarters (2025Q3–2026Q2) · Prices as of the 2026-10-02 close

Report overview

Mid-Expansion Cycle: Watching the Quality of Earnings

Revenue has climbed to record quarterly levels, but heavy global capacity expansion has lifted depreciation and financing costs, leaving operating margin and owner-attributable net profit far more volatile.

1
Consolidated 2025 revenue rose to KRW 604.1bn from KRW 507.1bn in 2024, yet operating profit slipped to KRW 111.0bn from KRW 112.5bn, pulling the operating margin down from 22.2% to 18.4%.
2
In 2Q26 revenue of KRW 176.0bn was the largest among the disclosed quarters, but operating profit was KRW 27.1bn (15.4% margin) and owner-attributable net income was a KRW 3.0bn loss, extending the gap between operating and bottom-line results.
3
The debt-to-equity ratio rose from 50.5% in 2022 to 178.6% in 2025, while operating cash flow fell from KRW 115.6bn in 2024 to KRW 38.2bn in 2025, confirming the financial strain of the investment phase.
4
Following the Tainan No.2 plant in Taiwan and the Phoenix entity in the US, the company is building a plant in Zatec, Czech Republic, widening its footprint for foundry customers.
5
The market is discussing an absorption merger of subsidiary MiCo Ceramics instead of an IPO, leaving merger-ratio and shareholder-value questions as a governance variable.

Business structure

KoMiCo commercialized precision cleaning and specialty coating of semiconductor equipment parts for the first time in Korea in 1996, and was established in August 2013 when the cleaning and coating division was spun off from the former entity, now named MiCo.

Per its annual report, the business is split into cleaning, coating and semiconductor parts (ceramic materials components); cleaning and coating are not batch manufacturing lines but items that pass through defined process steps.

Based on the 1Q26 quarterly report, consolidated revenue of KRW 157.1bn comprised cleaning KRW 34.8bn, coating KRW 42.3bn and parts KRW 80.0bn, meaning ceramic parts account for roughly half of the top line.

The parts axis centers on MiCo Ceramics, consolidated in 2023; a May 2026 digest of brokerage reports indicated MiCo Ceramics contributed about 84% of consolidated operating profit in 1Q26, with the ownership stake rising from 47.8% in 2023 to 62.6% in 1Q26.

The customer base spans major chipmakers including Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, TSMC, Intel and Micron. On production, 11 entities operate cleaning, coating and parts manufacturing facilities, with both the KoMiCo headquarters and MiCo Ceramics located in Anseong.

The company handles roughly 6,000 item types with annual output of about 900,000 pieces, a high-mix low-volume structure. Overseas parts operations also involve purchasing components from MiCo Ceramics or domestic functional-parts makers and reselling them.

Management frames partnerships with equipment makers as a way to translate coating technology into better tool performance and customer yields, and because cleaning and coating is a service business gated by proximity to customer fabs and quality certification, competition largely takes the form of a race to secure regional sites.

Earnings trend

Quarterly revenue · Operating profit

₩146B₩30.2B25Q2₩159.1B₩25.8B25Q3₩164.1B₩23.7B25Q4₩157.1B₩20.5B26Q1₩176B₩27.1B26Q2

RevenueOperating profit

Annual revenue · Operating profit

₩288.4B₩55.4B2022₩307.3B₩33B2023₩507.1B₩112.5B2024₩604.1B₩111B2025

RevenueOperating profit

Quarterly results · Last 5 quarters
Quarter	Revenue	Operating profit	Op. margin
2025Q2	₩146B	₩30.2B	20.7%
2025Q3	₩159.1B	₩25.8B	16.3%
2025Q4	₩164.1B	₩23.7B	14.5%
2026Q1	₩157.1B	₩20.5B	13.0%
2026Q2	₩176B	₩27.1B	15.4%

Annual results
Year	Revenue	Operating profit	Net income (parent)	Op. margin	ROE	Debt-to-equity
2022	₩288.4B	₩55.4B	₩42B	19.2%	16.3%	50.5%
2023	₩307.3B	₩33B	₩31.5B	10.7%	15.0%	106.2%
2024	₩507.1B	₩112.5B	₩55.9B	22.2%	20.8%	113.0%
2025	₩604.1B	₩111B	₩49.9B	18.4%	18.4%	178.6%

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 stepped up from KRW 288.4bn in 2022 and KRW 307.3bn in 2023 to KRW 507.1bn in 2024 and KRW 604.1bn in 2025.

Operating profit, however, went from KRW 55.4bn in 2022 (19.2% margin) to KRW 33.0bn in 2023 (10.7%), KRW 112.5bn in 2024 (22.2%) and KRW 111.0bn in 2025 (18.4%), edging lower in absolute terms in 2025 despite the larger top line.

Owner-attributable net profit also fell from KRW 55.9bn in 2024 to KRW 49.9bn in 2025, as a meaningful portion of the KRW 77.2bn total net profit went to non-controlling interests (equity likewise shows KRW 99.5bn of non-controlling interests alongside KRW 270.3bn of owners' equity).

Brokerage material pointed to depreciation from new plant construction and expanded hiring as factors delaying margin improvement. The quarterly path makes this clearer.

Revenue rose from KRW 146.0bn in 2Q25 to KRW 159.1bn in 3Q25, KRW 164.1bn in 4Q25, KRW 157.1bn in 1Q26 and KRW 176.0bn in 2Q26, while operating profit moved KRW 30.2bn to KRW 25.8bn, KRW 23.7bn, KRW 20.5bn and KRW 27.1bn, so the margin fell from 20.7% to 13.0% before recovering to 15.4% in 2Q26.

Owner-attributable net income flipped repeatedly: a KRW 6.8bn loss in 3Q25, KRW 14.5bn profit in 4Q25, KRW 11.1bn profit in 1Q26 and a KRW 3.0bn loss in 2Q26, so the last four quarters together produced KRW 656.3bn of revenue and KRW 97.1bn of operating profit but only KRW 15.8bn of owner-attributable net profit.

That gap between operating and bottom-line results appears to reflect financing costs from higher borrowings, currency-related items and the non-controlling share, though the line-by-line detail requires reading each quarterly filing.

Cash flow and the balance sheet tell the same story: operating cash flow shrank from KRW 78.7bn in 2022, KRW 65.2bn in 2023 and KRW 115.6bn in 2024 to KRW 38.2bn in 2025, while total liabilities stood at KRW 660.4bn and the debt-to-equity ratio climbed from 50.5% in 2022 to 106.2%, 113.0% and 178.6%.

Industry analysis

Cleaning and coating demand is a consumable service tied directly to customer fab utilization and wafer starts.

In its annual report the company notes that as of 2026 the semiconductor industry is adopting HBM and advanced packaging to overcome the physical limits of scaling, evolving into a high value-added solutions industry that optimizes system-level energy efficiency and compute rather than individual device performance.

As processes shrink and stack higher, contamination control and coating specifications for chamber parts become more demanding, structurally raising cleaning and coating intensity per wafer.

At the same time, the geographic dispersion of fabs is reshaping the business: whoever secures a site near the customer first captures the volume, so the map of new fabs across the US, Taiwan, Japan, China and Europe effectively becomes the capex roadmap.

KoMiCo established entities in Dalian and Kumamoto in 2025, expanding to a six-country footprint. SK Securities said in May 2026 that spillover from TSMC's leading-edge capacity shortage into Samsung Electronics and Intel should lift utilization at KoMiCo's Anseong and US operations.

This cycle, however, lags customer capex decisions, and new sites absorb fixed costs before volumes arrive, creating a time lag between an industry upturn and a profit upturn.

Competitively, specialist cleaning and coating firms coexist with in-house services from equipment makers, and certification track records plus a multinational site network act as differentiators.

Outlook

On confirmed facts, the swing factor for future earnings is the ramp schedule of new sites.

In a January 2026 report, SK Securities said the company targeted completion of its Tainan No.2 plant for leading-edge processes in the first half, extending coverage from 7-5nm to 3-2nm, and that the US Phoenix entity, completed late in the prior year, would finish preparations for normal operation within the first quarter.

The European site is now concrete. According to THE ELEC, KoMiCo signed a land lease for the Triangle industrial park in the Usti region of the Czech Republic on June 24, 2026, with total investment of roughly KRW 65bn, breaking ground in July for trial operation in August 2027 and start-up in September.

The plant will house eight production lines and seven cleanrooms, able to service process parts for a fab running about 100,000 wafers per month, adding roughly 5% to current global cleaning and coating capacity.

The company said the investment was made through its Taiwan subsidiary and that it will target Europe on the back of experience serving Taiwanese customers such as TSMC.

In the US, a roughly USD 50m cleaning and coating plant in Mesa, Arizona was announced back in 2024, while existing plants in Hillsboro, Oregon and Austin, Texas already supply Intel, Samsung Electronics and Micron.

On governance, TheBell reported in July 2026 that with regulators and the exchange tightening reviews of duplicate listings, MiCo Ceramics may opt for a merger with its parent instead of an IPO.

From the second half of 2026, then, the watch items are how quickly the added sites fill with revenue and where the operating margin settles once depreciation and financing costs are absorbed.

Valuation

PER

32.1×

PBR

1.8×

ROE

5.7%

EPS

₩783

BPS

₩14,205

Dividend per share

—

A key caveat for earnings-based multiples is that owner-attributable net profit over the last four quarters was far below operating profit, so with a compressed denominator the multiple looks very different on a full-year reported basis versus a four-quarter sum.

SK Securities, in a January 2026 report, plotted a price-to-earnings band of roughly 7.0x to 13.5x on twelve-month expected earnings; the multiple shown on screen today is better read alongside a normalized earnings base than compared directly with that historical band.

Against book value the shares trade at a premium to net assets, and the fact that non-controlling interests are a sizeable part of 2025 equity (owners' equity KRW 270.3bn versus non-controlling interests KRW 99.5bn) means per-share book metrics differ depending on the calculation method.

On dividends, the company is simultaneously running heavy capex and rising borrowings, so free cash available for distribution is tied to the investment cycle.

Finally, the 5-for-2 stock split combined with a one-for-one bonus issue in August 2026 lifted shares outstanding from 20,545,310 to 51,363,275, about 2.5 times, so per-share figures or target prices published before the split cannot be compared with the current price without adjustment.

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

A site network placed next to customer fabs first

Cleaning and coating is a service where logistics distance and turnaround time are the competitive edge, so a site near the customer fab is a precondition for winning volume.

KoMiCo added Dalian and Kumamoto entities in 2025, broadening to six countries, and in June 2026 signed a land lease in the Czech Republic targeting start-up in September 2027, securing a European base.

SK Securities noted in January 2026 that after Taiwan, this is the year cleaning and coating begins for a key customer's US fabs, with administrative procedures underway for Japanese and European fabs.

Top-line growth continued on a quarterly basis

Quarterly revenue expanded from KRW 146.0bn in 2Q25 to KRW 176.0bn in 2Q26, and on an annual basis it nearly doubled from KRW 307.3bn in 2023 to KRW 604.1bn in 2025. Because cleaning and coating volumes track customer utilization, the revenue base tends to hold as long as downstream shipments continue.

The addition of the ceramic parts business also splits the mix between services and products, which can cushion volatility.

Rising subsidiary stake and governance clean-up debate

A May 2026 digest of brokerage reports indicated the MiCo Ceramics stake rose from 47.8% in 2023 to 62.6% in 1Q26, implying a larger share of subsidiary profit accruing to the parent. TheBell reported in July 2026 that tighter duplicate-listing reviews have put a merger with KoMiCo on the table instead of an IPO.

Should a merger proceed, the treatment of profit that currently leaks to non-controlling interests could change, which bears directly on owner-attributable earnings.

Bear factors

Falling operating margin and depreciation burden

The operating margin fell from 22.2% in 2024 to 18.4% in 2025, and quarterly it dropped from 20.7% in 2Q25 to 13.0% in 1Q26 before recovering to 15.4% in 2Q26. Brokerage material cited depreciation from new plant construction and expanded hiring as factors delaying margin improvement.

Because new sites book fixed costs before volumes arrive, margin pressure can persist until utilization catches up.

Financial leverage and shrinking cash flow

The debt-to-equity ratio more than tripled from 50.5% in 2022 to 178.6% in 2025, with total liabilities of KRW 660.4bn. Over the same period operating cash flow plunged from KRW 115.6bn in 2024 to KRW 38.2bn in 2025, showing that internally generated cash no longer covers the investment program.

On a December 2025 consolidated basis, total assets were KRW 1,030.2bn and total equity KRW 369.8bn. If rate conditions and any delay in ramping new sites coincide, financing costs could weigh more heavily on net profit.

Unstable owner-attributable net profit

Owner-attributable net profit swung from a KRW 6.8bn loss in 3Q25 to a KRW 14.5bn profit in 4Q25, a KRW 11.1bn profit in 1Q26 and a KRW 3.0bn loss in 2Q26. That happened even though operating profit exceeded KRW 20bn in every quarter, indicating a large weight of non-operating items.

In 2025, owners took only KRW 49.9bn of the KRW 77.2bn total net profit, with non-controlling interests carried at KRW 99.5bn in equity. As long as this structure persists, the predictability of bottom-line metrics may stay low.

Risk factors

Downstream capex cycle

Revenue tracks customer fab utilization and the timing of new fab start-ups, so delays in memory or foundry investment push back revenue recognition at new sites.

SK Securities forecast in May 2026 that spillover from TSMC's leading-edge capacity shortage would extend to Samsung Electronics and Intel, but that depends on customer decisions. Fixed costs at completed sites accrue regardless of revenue, so delays translate directly into margin erosion.

Governance and merger ratio

TheBell reported that if KoMiCo absorbs MiCo Ceramics, the key variable is how outside stakes such as Samsung Electronics' are valued for new share allocation: a low price is hard to sell to outside holders, while a high price could spark a debate over dilution of KoMiCo shareholder value.

The same report highlighted a wide gap between the price paid last year for MiCo Ceramics common shares and valuations derived from applying listed-company multiples. Neither the merger itself nor its terms are settled at this point.

Overseas operations, FX and regulation

Running operations across the US, Taiwan, China, Japan and Europe increases variables that are hard to control, including currency swings, local labor costs and permitting timelines.

The Czech plant alone has a lead time of more than a year, from groundbreaking in July 2026 to start-up in September 2027, during which downstream demand or the cost structure may shift. Changes in regional semiconductor subsidy and export-control policies could also affect site-level operating plans.

What to watch next

Mid-October 2026
TSMC's third-quarter results and capex plan. The pace of leading-edge expansion is a leading indicator for volumes at KoMiCo's Taiwan and US sites.
Mid-November 2026
Third-quarter filing. Watch whether the operating margin improves further from 15.4% in 2Q26, whether owner-attributable net profit returns to positive, and how the revenue mix between cleaning/coating and parts shifts.
4Q 2026 to 1H 2027
Any follow-up disclosure on MiCo Ceramics. If an absorption merger proceeds, the merger ratio, appraisal rights price and outside-shareholder approval process would reshape the owner-attributable profit structure.
March 2027
The 2026 annual report. It will show whether the debt-to-equity ratio (178.6% in 2025) and operating cash flow (KRW 38.2bn in 2025) have turned, and how far utilization at each new entity has risen.
August to September 2027
Whether the Zatec plant in the Czech Republic meets its trial-run (August 2027) and start-up (September 2027) schedule. The actual start date marks the beginning of revenue contribution from the European base.

Overall view

KoMiCo combines cleaning and coating services for semiconductor process parts with ceramic materials components, and is executing a strategy of pre-emptively building sites wherever new customer fabs go up.

As a result, revenue grew from KRW 307.3bn in 2023 to KRW 604.1bn in 2025, reaching KRW 176.0bn in 2Q26 on a quarterly basis. Over the same period, however, the operating margin fell from 22.2% in 2024 to 18.4% in 2025, and owner-attributable net profit swung widely, posting losses in 3Q25 and 2Q26.

The debt-to-equity ratio rose to 178.6% and operating cash flow shrank from KRW 115.6bn in 2024 to KRW 38.2bn in 2025, so the cost of growth is visible directly in the financial statements.

What matters next is how quickly the Tainan No.2 plant, the Phoenix entity and the Zatec site fill with revenue and absorb their initial fixed costs, and how the governance debate around MiCo Ceramics is resolved.

The distinguishing feature of this stock is that the positives (early site positioning, top-line growth, a larger subsidiary stake) and the negatives (margin decline, higher leverage, earnings volatility) are two sides of the same facts. This material is for information purposes only and contains no buy or sell opinion on any security.

Sources

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

Show 18 more articles and sources

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.