Only 17% of KOSDAQ firms held IR events in 2015

[THE INVESTOR] More than 80 percent of companies listed on the tech-heavy KOSDAQ did not hold a single investor relations event last year, Korea Exchange said on June 29.

According to Korea Exchange’s analysis, 948 of the 1,151 KOSDAQ companies did not hold any investor relations events in 2015. The figures are based on regulatory filings posted on the Financial Supervisory Service’s Data Analysis, Retrieval and Transfer System.

Such neglect of communication with investors was displayed regardless of the size of the company.

Of the top 100 companies by market capitalization, 16 were shown to have held no investor relations events between 2011 and 2015. Dongsuh, which ranks third by market capitalization, had never posted a regulatory filing announcing an investor relations event since it was listed in 1996.

KOSDAQ companies that do not hold investor relations events cite the cost and the ambiguous efficacy of such events.

The finance industry, however, considers investor relations events as being crucial in communicating with and providing information to investors.

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)