Deutsche Motors announced a “three-year shareholder return policy proposal to enhance corporate value.”
This announcement reflects Deutsche Motors’ commitment to actively respond to the government’s recently promoted corporate value-up program, including stable dividends and share buybacks and cancellations.
To ensure stable dividends, they will diversify premium imported car brands and stabilize their online and offline used car platform business. Last year, Deutsche Motors’ subsidiaries Bayern Auto and Italian Automobili were respectively appointed as official dealers for Audi and Lamborghini. Through this, they aim to grow into a comprehensive automotive service company encompassing premium imported and luxury supercar brands, and will continue to expand their brands and services.
They are also venturing into overseas markets. At the end of last year, they completed the acquisition process through their subsidiary Deutsche Financial for the Cambodian finance company BAMC Finance PLC and will formally enter the Southeast Asian market. Deutsche Motors plans to showcase the successful automotive finance business model of Deutsche Automobile Group across Southeast Asia, using Phnom Penh, Cambodia, as a base.
The online and offline used car platform business, represented by Charancha and Deutsche Auto World, is also continuing to sail smoothly with synergy from its affiliates within the Deutsche Automobile Group. Based on these efforts, they recorded a revenue of 2.1958 trillion KRW for 2023 according to consolidated financial statements, achieving a 12% increase compared to the previous year and reaching the first-ever 2 trillion KRW in sales.
They also presented a direction for share buybacks and cancellations. Their internal value-up program includes a plan to continuously conduct share buybacks and cancellations until they reach a price-to-book ratio (PBR) of 1, which is the standard evaluation criterion for publicly listed companies. Additionally, the 1 million shares bought back last December are expected to be canceled within the first half of this year. They also plan to strengthen proactive disclosures and information provision activities through Investor Relations to share company current status and future business plans in detail with shareholders and domestic and foreign investors.
Deutsche Motors stated, “In line with the government’s value-up program to overcome Korean discount, we plan to implement various policies to enhance our undervalued corporate value. In the future, we will continue to foster corporate value by sharing the fruits of growth with many shareholders and will present policies to strengthen responsible management as a listed corporation,” they said.
Lee Sang-jin daedusj@autodiary.kr