Lockups on a combined 99.32 million shares at 34 listed companies will expire in October, opening the door to a wave of newly tradable stock. Several of the names face the release of more than half their outstanding shares, or blocks running into the millions, leaving investors exposed to overhang risk from the sudden jump in freely traded supply.
The Korea Securities Depository said on the 30th that lockups will be lifted on 7.02 million shares at one company on the main KOSPI board and on 92.3 million shares at 33 companies on the KOSDAQ market. On the main board, the sole case is HJ Shipbuilding & Construction (097230), where 7,021,063 shares, or about 8% of its total outstanding stock, become tradable.
On KOSDAQ, cosmetics maker BBIA (451250) will see 6,307,215 shares — 62% of its total stock — freed on Oct. 25. Other companies set to release blocks exceeding 30% of their outstanding shares include semiconductor equipment maker IMT (451220) at 36%, battery equipment firm Jeil M&S (412540) at 34%, SD System (121890) at 33%, electric-vehicle charging solutions provider Chaevi (0011T0) at 33%, and fine chemical materials maker Hanchem (457370) at 32%. Skylabs, which recently listed on KOSDAQ under the technology growth track, will see lockups lifted on 4,347,203 shares, or 23%, on Oct. 4.
Many other stocks face the release of at least 10% of their outstanding shares. AU Brands at 28%, C&C International at 27%, Dimoa at 26% and Qualitas Semiconductor (432720) at 21% will each free more than a fifth of their total stock. They are followed by Lemon Healthcare at 17%, Winpac at 15%, Alticast at 15%, Foodnamoo at 13%, Remedi at 11%, Madup at 10%, Delicious at 10%, Poongjeon Pharmacy at 10% and Global Technology at 10%.
Mandatory lockup registration is a system that protects ordinary investors by electronically registering shares held by largest shareholders and institutional investors so they cannot be sold for a set period. When those shares are freed, selling to lock in gains can weigh on the stock price in the short term, so investors need to check the timing of each expiry and the amount of stock that can actually trade.
