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
Auto& posted its first operating profit in 2025, but net income attributable to owners has stayed negative for four straight years, and operating losses resurfaced in the first half of 2026 while eroding equity and a rising debt ratio remain financial burdens.
2025 revenue reached KRW 59.1 billion with operating profit of KRW 0.75 billion (1.3% margin), turning positive after three straight years of operating losses
Net income attributable to owners remained negative every year from 2022 to 2025, with a loss of KRW -5.19 billion in 2025 alone
Operating losses returned in Q1-Q2 2026, with Q1 revenue falling to KRW 11.10 billion, the lowest of the last five quarters
Shareholders' equity fell from KRW 30.1 billion in 2022 to KRW 18.6 billion in 2025, while the debt ratio rose from 84.7% to 194.7%
Continued insider share purchases by management and directors, alongside brand licensing expansion including a FIFA World Cup supply deal
Auto& began as an in-house venture of the Hyundai Motor Group in 2008 and spun off as a separate entity in 2012, positioning itself as a mobility-life platform company that connects the automotive before-market (OEM-related) and aftermarket segments.
The company organizes its business around A2B products and services covering accessory and option-item development and distribution, an online-mall-based e-commerce operation, and an offline space business called SPACE ZONE.
The largest shareholder is CEO Choi Chan-wook and related parties, with Hyundai Motor also listed as a major shareholder, making cooperation with the automaker group a core pillar of its business structure.
Key sales channels include Hyundai and Kia's new-car option programs, MRO operations, and membership malls, through which customization items are supplied via dealer networks and online malls.
More recently, as part of its brand and licensing expansion, the company was selected as the exclusive global supplier of 19 licensed premium items for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, distributed to roughly 50 countries through Hyundai's sales network.
Korea's automotive accessories and tuning market remains fragmented, with numerous small operators, which the company cites as a point of differentiation given the scarcity of integrated platform players with OEM channel access.
The company has stated a direction of upgrading its e-commerce system through AI-agent-based product recommendations and personalized content while expanding an EV-centered mobility-life culture.
This business structure carries the advantage of a stable relationship with the automaker group, but also comes with a degree of revenue dependence on specific customers.
| Quarter | Revenue | Operating profit | Op. margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025Q2 | ₩16.6B | ₩600M | 3.6% |
| 2025Q3 | ₩14.7B | -₩300M | −2.4% |
| 2025Q4 | ₩15B | ₩1.1B | 7.6% |
| 2026Q1 | ₩11.1B | -₩1.3B | −12.0% |
| 2026Q2 | ₩13.3B | -₩1.1B | −8.4% |
| Year | Revenue | Operating profit | Net income (parent) | Op. margin | ROE | Debt-to-equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | ₩47.8B | -₩3.8B | -₩2.4B | −8.0% | −8.0% | 84.7% |
| 2023 | ₩60.4B | -₩2.8B | -₩1.1B | −4.6% | −3.9% | 125.4% |
| 2024 | ₩57.2B | -₩3.3B | -₩5.5B | −5.8% | −23.2% | 139.9% |
| 2025 | ₩59.1B | ₩800M | -₩5.2B | 1.3% | −27.9% | 194.7% |
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
Auto&'s consolidated revenue rose from KRW 47.8 billion in 2022 to KRW 60.4 billion in 2023, dipped to KRW 57.2 billion in 2024, and recovered to KRW 59.1 billion in 2025, showing no clear directional trend over the four years.
Operating profit stayed negative for three consecutive years — KRW -3.8 billion in 2022, KRW -2.8 billion in 2023, and KRW -3.3 billion in 2024 — before turning positive at KRW 0.75 billion in 2025, an operating margin of 1.3%.
Net income attributable to owners, however, remained negative throughout: KRW -2.4 billion (2022), KRW -1.1 billion (2023), KRW -5.5 billion (2024), and KRW -5.2 billion (2025); notably in 2025 the net loss stayed close to the prior year's level even though operating profit turned positive, implying non-operating items offset the operating improvement.
On a quarterly basis, the company posted operating profit of KRW 0.59 billion and net profit of KRW 0.22 billion in Q2 2025 on revenue of KRW 16.58 billion, but swung back to net losses of KRW -1.49 billion in Q3 2025 and KRW -3.01 billion in Q4 2025.
Notably, Q4 2025 operating profit actually improved to KRW 1.14 billion, yet the net loss was the largest of the period, underscoring the weight of non-operating charges.
In Q1 2026, revenue fell to KRW 11.10 billion — the lowest of the last five quarters — with an operating loss of KRW -1.33 billion and a net loss of KRW -1.45 billion, and Q2 2026 revenue of KRW 13.25 billion still came with an operating loss of KRW -1.11 billion and a net loss of KRW -0.31 billion.
As a result, the trailing four-quarter sum (Q3 2025–Q2 2026) of net income attributable to owners was KRW -6.26 billion, showing the annualized loss trajectory widening rather than narrowing, while shareholders' equity fell every year from KRW 30.1 billion in 2022 to KRW 18.6 billion in 2025 and the debt ratio climbed from 84.7% to 194.7%, eroding the company's financial buffer.
Korea's automotive aftermarket and accessories market remains fragmented, with numerous small operators, which the company cites as a relative point of differentiation given the scarcity of integrated platform players with OEM channel access.
The upstream industry is in a phase where slowing domestic new-car sales and tighter consumer spending have combined to slow the growth pace of accessory and tuning demand compared with prior years.
At the same time, the shift toward EVs and software-defined vehicles is cited as a driver of new demand for interior customization and space-utility products, though its contribution does not yet appear large enough to change the overall financial trajectory.
The equity and business relationship with the automaker group (Hyundai Motor and Kia) provides stable channels such as new-car options and MRO, but also carries the flip side of elevated revenue dependence on specific customers.
In e-commerce, the company is attempting differentiation through AI-based recommendation and personalization amid intensifying competition among open markets and proprietary malls, though rising online penetration also brings coexisting price competition.
The brand licensing and merchandise business carries revenue characteristics tied to one-off events such as sports tournaments, which should be viewed as a supplementary element rather than a stable, recurring revenue source.
In an August 2026 disclosure-related comment, Auto& presented future growth keywords including expansion of SDV (software-defined vehicle)-dedicated products, growth of the SPACE ZONE business, and AI transformation (AX) of its e-commerce platform.
The company stated it would strengthen execution — including mass production, expansion of applicable vehicle models, and platform upgrades — so that these new-business outcomes could be substantially reflected in results starting in 2027.
In its brand and licensing business, the company carried out an exclusive global supply of 19 licensed premium items tied to the 2026 FIFA World Cup through Hyundai Motor's sales network, with a related exhibition running through August 16 at Hyundai Motorstudio.
Such event-driven licensing revenue is tied to the sports calendar and should be interpreted as a case of brand expansion rather than a stable, recurring revenue source.
On the management side, CEO Choi Chan-wook along with key executives and outside directors continued a pattern of responsible-management share purchases, buying a combined 41,546 shares (about 0.3% of total shares outstanding) between June 2025 and July 2026.
The company acknowledged awareness of weak earnings and share-price softness while explaining that the purchases reflected conviction in its mid-to-long-term growth strategy and value-recovery efforts rather than short-term responses.
Since the company itself has pointed to 2027 as the timeline for new-business results to materialize, defending revenue and margins in the existing business is likely to be the key variable for the remainder of 2026.
Auto& has posted net losses in three of the last four years and failed to escape a net loss even in 2025 despite turning operating profit positive, placing it in a range where traditional earnings-based valuation metrics are difficult to apply meaningfully.
Given that equity has declined every year while the debt ratio has risen sharply, the value the market assigns can be gauged relative to net asset value, and the current share price trades above net asset value on both a self-calculated and a KRX-disclosed basis, suggesting a level that reflects a certain premium to net assets.
There has been no dividend payment recorded in any of the last four years, meaning shareholder returns have relied on alternative measures such as management's share purchases rather than dividends.
Under this structure, whether the recent improvement in operating margin proves durable, and whether non-operating loss factors shrink going forward, are likely to be more important variables in assessing the level of value the market assigns than backward-looking multiples.
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
In 2025, operating profit reached KRW 0.75 billion, breaking a streak of losses from 2022 through 2024, while revenue rose to KRW 59.1 billion from the prior year. The operating margin of 1.3% remains modest, but the fact that the profit-and-loss structure itself changed direction is notable. Whether this improvement persists remains to be confirmed through quarterly results from 2026 onward.
CEO Choi Chan-wook, key executives, and outside directors bought a combined 41,546 shares in the open market between June 2025 and July 2026.
The company described this as a responsible-management action grounded in conviction about its mid-to-long-term growth strategy and value recovery, despite weak earnings and a soft share price. Notably, a newly appointed independent director also participated in the purchases.
Auto& counts Hyundai Motor and Kia among its major shareholders and was selected as the exclusive global supplier of 19 licensed premium items for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, distributing products to about 50 countries through Hyundai's sales network.
This can be seen as an example of expanding new revenue sources by leveraging the relationship with the automaker group, though as an event-driven revenue stream its persistence is limited.
Net income attributable to owners was negative every year from 2022 through 2025, and even after operating profit turned positive in 2025, the net loss remained close to the 2024 level.
Shareholders' equity declined from KRW 30.1 billion in 2022 to KRW 18.6 billion in 2025, while the debt ratio jumped from 84.7% to 194.7%. Continued losses could further weaken the company's financial buffer.
Although Q4 2025 operating profit improved to KRW 1.14 billion, Q1 and Q2 2026 reverted to operating losses of KRW -1.33 billion and KRW -1.11 billion, respectively.
Q1 revenue fell to KRW 11.10 billion, the lowest of the last five quarters, and while Q2 revenue recovered somewhat to KRW 13.25 billion, the bottom line remained in the red.
The company has stated that outcomes from SDV-dedicated products and the SPACE ZONE business will be substantially reflected in results starting in 2027. This implies that for the remainder of 2026, defending revenue and margins in the existing business is likely to be the main determinant of performance.
Brand licensing revenue also carries a one-off character tied to the sports-event calendar, making it difficult to view as a stable, recurring income source.
While shareholders' equity has declined for four consecutive years, the debt ratio rose sharply from 84.7% in 2022 to 194.7% in 2025. Further accumulation of net losses could thin the capital buffer even more.
Operating cash flow also swung back to negative KRW -0.37 billion in 2025, confirming volatility in cash generation.
Auto&'s key revenue channels are concentrated around Hyundai Motor's and Kia's new-car option programs, MRO operations, and membership malls. While this provides the advantage of a stable partnership, it also means results are tied to changes in the automaker group's sales and policies.
A structure with high revenue dependence on specific customers can constrain bargaining power and channel diversification.
Growth keywords the company has presented — SDV-dedicated products, the SPACE ZONE business, and e-commerce AI transformation — target substantial results starting in 2027, and execution delays could push back that timeline further. The relatively low liquidity and trading scale typical of small-cap KOSDAQ stocks are also factors to consider.
Q3 2026 results are expected to be disclosed around this time; it will be important to check whether the operating loss improves from Q2's KRW -1.11 billion, or whether the operating losses seen in the first half of 2026 persist.
Watch for additional disclosures or IR materials on the mass production and vehicle-model expansion of SDV-dedicated products and progress on the SPACE ZONE business, as these could serve as leading indicators for the 2027 results contribution the company has guided toward.
Check whether additional insider share-purchase disclosures by management and directors continue, and at what scale, to gauge the continuity of the responsible-management signal.
Confirmed results should be checked to see whether the equity and debt-ratio trend has deteriorated further from 2025's 194.7%, and whether the net loss attributable to owners has narrowed.
Auto& turned operating profit positive for the first time in 2025, but net income attributable to owners has not escaped losses for four straight years, and in the first half of 2026 even the operating line reverted to losses while revenue fell to its lowest level in five quarters.
The annual decline in equity and sharp rise in the debt ratio are burdens from a financial-buffer standpoint, and with no dividend being paid, the share purchases by management and directors are presented as a signal of aligned interests with shareholders.
On the business side, the company has outlined brand and licensing expansion built on cooperation with Hyundai Motor and Kia (including the FIFA World Cup licensing supply) as well as new-business directions such as SDV and SPACE ZONE, but management has pointed to 2027 as the timeline for these to be substantially reflected in results, making the defense of existing-business revenue and margins the key thing to watch for the remainder of 2026.
From a valuation standpoint, since earnings-based metrics are difficult to apply meaningfully, the relationship to net asset value, the durability of any operating-margin improvement, and whether non-operating loss factors shrink are likely to be useful reference points.
Overall, Auto& is in a phase where an attempted turnaround in its profit-and-loss structure and financial-structure burdens are both evident at the same time, and upcoming quarterly results along with progress on new businesses are likely to be the key variables shaping its trajectory going forward.
Report written 2026-09-05 · Data as of 2026-09-04
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