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Korean chemicals giant making petrochemicals, EV battery cathode materials and specialty/life-sciences products.
Korean chemicals giant making petrochemicals, EV battery cathode materials and specialty/life-sciences products.
Petrochemicals earn the spread between feedstock and product prices. The battery cell business sits in LG Energy Solution, spun out and listed in 2022, in which LG Chem keeps the controlling stake; its own battery exposure is through cathode materials sold to makers including that unit. LG Group is the controlling shareholder.
In one line: Korea's Dow Chemical, with a battery-materials arm..
Moat: narrow (scale, process know-how). Large integrated petrochemical scale plus an early move into cathode materials, though commodity pricing limits margins.
Headquarters: Seoul, South Korea · Founded: 1947 · Employees: 12,869
Size Lgchem (051910.KS) is a South Korea Materials company (Chemicals: Specialty) with a market value of $12.6B, the 33rd largest of 495 South Korea companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at ₩232,000 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares fell 41.6%, against -21.0% for the median peer and -24.5% for the South Korea market (cap-weighted) — 5th lowest of 21 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 0.5% over the last twelve months (peer median +2.2%); the operating margin is 0.2% (peer median 11.6%).
Valuation It trades at 1.2× enterprise value to sales against a peer median of 2.0× (6th cheapest of 21).
Capital Return on invested capital runs 5.4 points below its cost of capital (5.5% WACC).
Credit Lgchem has 1 bond outstanding ($1.00B), rated BBB by the agencies.
Next results Next results expected around 9 Feb 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | ₩48.8T | ₩45.9T | ₩48.7T | ₩55.2T | ₩51.0T |
| Revenue growth | — | -6% | -12% | +8% | — |
| Gross profit | ₩8.14T | ₩6.81T | ₩6.66T | ₩8.10T | ₩9.35T |
| EBITDA | ₩5.94T | ₩4.78T | ₩4.05T | ₩5.76T | ₩6.33T |
| Net income | -₩1.51T | -₩1.82T | -₩691B | ₩1.34T | ₩1.85T |
| Free cash flow | -₩4.04T | -₩5.43T | -₩7.60T | -₩5.42T | -₩7.84T |
| Capital expenditure | ₩10.5T | ₩13.9T | ₩14.8T | ₩13.1T | ₩8.57T |
| Total debt | ₩40.3T | ₩33.8T | ₩27.4T | ₩21.9T | ₩16.0T |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | EV / Sales | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lgchem 051910.KS | $12.6B | -42% | 0% | 0% | 1.2× | n/a |
| Dow DOW | $22.7B | -14% | +4% | 5% | 0.9× | 4.3% |
| Basf BAS.DE | $52.6B | +2% | -4% | 7% | 1.0× | 5.7% |
| Formosa Plastics 1301.TW | $12.1B | +22% | -11% | -2% | 1.7× | n/a |
| Hanwha Solutions 009830.KS | $4.30B | -49% | +14% | 0% | 0.4× | n/a |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | 051910.KS | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | -16.2% | -0.6% | 3rd lowest of 21 |
| 6-month return | -41.6% | -21.0% | 5th lowest of 21 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -47.0% | -39.9% | 7th lowest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +0.5% | +2.2% | 10th lowest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 0.2% | 11.6% | 4th lowest of 21 |
| EV / Sales | 1.2× | 2.0× | 6th cheapest of 21 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | -5.4 pp | -0.9 pp | 7th lowest of 21 |
| EV / EBITDA | 10.1× | 9.7× | 5th most expensive of 11 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 4.9× | 2.2× | 2nd most indebted of 13 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | EV / Sales | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lgchem 051910.KS | South Korea | $12.6B | -42% | 0% | 0% | 1.2× | n/a | n/a |
| Resonac 4004.T | Japan | $12.6B | -26% | +1% | 8% | 1.9× | 26.7% | +6.7% |
| Satellite Chemical 002648.SZ | China | $12.4B | -17% | +20% | 23% | 1.6× | -13.2% | +33.8% |
| Zhejiang Juhua 600160.SS | China | $13.1B | -12% | -5% | 20% | 3.8× | n/a | n/a |
| Formosa Plastics 1301.TW | Taiwan | $12.1B | +22% | -11% | -2% | 1.7× | n/a | n/a |
| Albemarle ALB | United States | $11.7B | -51% | +18% | 14% | 2.5× | 10.9% | +10.4% |
| Covestro 1COV.DE | Germany | $14.0B | 0% | -9% | -3% | 1.1× | n/a | n/a |
| Formosa Chemicals & Fibre 1326.TW | Taiwan | $11.1B | +21% | -5% | 1% | 1.0× | 26.2% | +2.5% |
| Swancor Advanced Materials 688585.SS | China | $10.9B | +50% | +3% | -25% | 41.7× | n/a | n/a |
| Symrise SY1.DE | Germany | $15.1B | +30% | -1% | 12% | 3.1× | 8.1% | +7.0% |
| Nippon Sanso 4091.T | Japan | $15.3B | +1% | +10% | 15% | 2.2× | 7.8% | +10.7% |
| Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile S.A. Sponsored ADR Pfd Series B SQM | United States | $16.0B | -37% | +59% | 39% | 2.9× | -4.8% | +20.1% |
| Ganfeng Lithium 1772.HK | Hong Kong | $9.76B | -72% | +123% | 18% | 2.8× | 9.0% | +32.0% |
| Hengli Petrochemical 600346.SS | China | $17.5B | -25% | -8% | 8% | 1.2× | -8.0% | +5.1% |
| Tianqi Lithium 002466.SZ | China | $8.97B | -54% | +104% | 57% | 3.5× | -1.2% | +26.2% |
| Guangzhou Tinci Materials Technology 002709.SZ | China | $8.73B | -53% | +102% | 19% | 2.0× | 9.3% | +32.3% |
| Shandong Hualu-Hengsheng Chemical 600426.SS | China | $8.27B | -32% | +3% | 16% | 2.0× | -2.5% | +18.7% |
| China Northern Rare Earth (Group) High-Tech 600111.SS | China | $19.6B | -31% | +29% | 11% | 2.6× | 24.6% | +14.2% |
| LyondellBasell LYB | United States | $19.6B | -15% | -2% | 10% | 0.9× | -10.3% | +1.7% |
| Westlake WLK | United States | $8.11B | -32% | 0% | 1% | 1.1× | 37.4% | +8.3% |
| Eastman Chemical EMN | United States | $7.37B | -13% | 0% | 10% | 1.3× | 5.1% | +0.7% |
Lgchem has 1 bond outstanding with $1.00B face value. The agencies rate it BBB.