"From 190,000 Won to 9,900 Won" 240,000 Retail Investors Left in Tears... Kumyang Shareholders Face Possible Damages Claims as Delisting Looms

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[The Financial News] Once hailed as a leading K-Battery stock and valued at nearly 10 trillion won in market capitalization, Kumyang Co., Ltd. has now entered the delisting process. The company had been a flagship secondary battery theme stock for about 240,000 retail investors, but repeated setbacks in rights offerings and two straight years of audit opinion refusals have pushed it to the brink of being removed from the stock market. Some minority shareholders are reportedly considering criminal complaints and damages claims, while blaming management for the crisis.
According to EDAILY on the 25th, KRX held a listing and disclosure committee meeting on the 20th and decided to delist Kumyang Co., Ltd. The exchange said, "After reviewing the delisting grounds arising from the audit opinion refusals in the 2024 and 2025 audit reports, it decided to delist the stock."
Kumyang Co., Ltd. received audit opinion refusals for two consecutive years and was assessed as having failed to produce any clear signs of normalization in its financial structure or internal controls during the one-year improvement period granted by the exchange. An audit opinion refusal is regarded as one of the most serious delisting grounds from the standpoint of investor protection.
Initially, the exchange had planned to go through the delisting notice period until the 26th and begin a liquidation trading period from the 27th. However, the process was temporarily suspended after Kumyang Co., Ltd. filed an injunction to suspend the effectiveness of the delisting decision, pending a court ruling.
The market points to repeated setbacks in rights offerings as the main reason behind Kumyang Co., Ltd.'s collapse. The company had pushed ahead with a shareholder rights offering worth about 405.0 billion won in 2024 to build a cylindrical battery plant in Gijang, Busan, but later withdrew the plan and was designated as a company with poor disclosure practices.
It later changed its funding plan to a third-party allotment rights offering, but the payment schedule was postponed eight times. While the capital raising effort stalled, the Gijang plant site was put up for compulsory auction, and a court approved Busan Bank's request for a seizure and collection order on receivables worth about 137.9 billion won. Industry observers say the company's survival itself is now in jeopardy.
On the day the delisting decision was announced, Kumyang Co., Ltd. issued a statement saying it would devote all efforts to attracting investment.
The company said, "We are continuing discussions with multiple investment firms to secure funding," and added, "We will work to stabilize liquidity through external capital raising and restore management normalcy by obtaining an unqualified audit opinion."
It also said, "This is not a company that has faced a listing eligibility issue because of illegal acts such as embezzlement or breach of trust," and added, "We will do our utmost to protect the rights and interests of shareholders, partner companies, and other stakeholders."
However, opposition from minority shareholders is growing stronger. Some investors are reportedly beginning collective legal action to hold management accountable.
y27k@fnnews.com Seo Yoon-kyung Reporter