This article was displayed on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) website at 4:53 p.m. on Jan. 26, 2026.
"L (LS Group) fear" has swept the initial public offering (IPO) market. As the Korea Exchange (KRX) moved to draw up guidelines on duplicate listings, the president took direct aim at LS Group, saying "duplicate listings should not be allowed." Concerns are becoming reality that listings of corporations at the center of the duplicate-listing controversy will be halted all at once.
According to the financial investment industry on the 26th, preliminary listing reviews for HANCOM InSpace, DTS and Duksan Navcours have been suspended all at once. All are subsidiaries of listed companies and are among those embroiled in duplicate-listing controversies.
These corporations are already "longtime" listing candidates. HANCOM InSpace filed for a preliminary listing review in Aug. and had gone five months without a conclusion. DTS also filed for a preliminary review with the KOSDAQ Market Division of the Korea Exchange (KRX) more than four months ago but has yet to receive a result. The impact stems from concerns raised by minority shareholders over shareholder value erosion, as not only the parent company, DASAN Networks, but also its higher-level controlling company, Dasan Solueta, are listed companies.
Initially, these corporations planned to clear the Korea Exchange (KRX) preliminary review threshold by leveraging "business independence" and investor-protection measures such as shareholder returns. That is because TMC, a subsidiary of KOSDAQ-listed KPF, earlier overcame the duplicate-listing controversy and succeeded in listing by ensuring business independence and shareholder returns.
LS, having taken a cue from TMC's case, put forward a "special allotment of IPO shares" and was in prior consultations with the Korea Exchange (KRX), but ultimately raised the white flag after the president's remarks.
The Korea Exchange (KRX) is working to prepare "duplicate-listing guidelines," aiming to revise the detailed enforcement rules of the listing regulations in the first quarter of this year. The need for precise rules has been raised because criticism has continued that standards for duplicate listings are vague.
In the past, duplicate listing referred to a "split listing" in which a listed company carved out its core business unit and listed it, but recently the concept has expanded to include listings of affiliates of listed companies.
The president's remarks raise the possibility that the threshold for the exchange's duplicate-listing guidelines will become much higher. Some worry that review rules could be tightened, such as making minority shareholder consent a mandatory requirement when listed companies push to list affiliates.
The fallout has spread to other large conglomerate affiliates preparing IPOs. Specifically, HD Hyundai Group and SK Group had scheduled listings of affiliates HD Hyundai Robotics and SK ecoplant, respectively, but they find themselves inevitably hamstrung by the controversy over duplicate listings of conglomerate affiliates.
Many of them had attracted financial investors (FI) in the pre-IPO (fundraising before listing) stage, making support for capital recovery via an IPO a key term of the investment. In particular, SK ecoplant raised 1 trillion won in 2022 and promised to complete its listing by July this year.
A source at an investment bank (IB) said, "Unless there is a clear rationale that it is a national strategic industry fostered by the government, it will be difficult for the time being for subsidiaries aiming solely to raise funds to clear the bar," adding, "From the exchange's standpoint, there is no way it would approve a matter flagged by the president without guidelines."