Cuchen paid cash dividends to its parent company Bubang, which is listed on KOSDAQ, even after swinging to a net loss. It transferred the cash it had secured to the parent company while overseas subsidiaries continued to post losses and growth slowed. Cuchen said the decision was aimed at enhancing shareholder value, but some said the move reflects a group-level cash management strategy, as the dividends accrue to Bubang, which owns 100% equity.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system on the 11th, Cuchen posted revenue of 150.1 billion won and operating profit of 2.4 billion won last year. Both revenue and operating profit declined, and it swung to a net loss of 860 million won. First-quarter revenue this year was 37.9 billion won, down 7.3% from a year earlier.
It has failed to achieve a clear gain in market share in Korea's rice cooker market, and its overseas business is sluggish. Cuchen's North America subsidiary and its China unit Cuchen Electronics (Liaoning) posted a cumulative net loss of about 4.4 billion won over the past three years. The North America unit has been in the red for four straight years, and the China unit has recorded losses for three straight years since its establishment.
Despite weak business performance, Cuchen paid cash dividends totaling 5.38 billion won last year. It was the first time in five years since 2020 that it paid dividends after not doing so even once. There were no dividends when it posted profits of 23.1 billion won in 2022 and 4.5 billion won in 2024. The dividends accrue to its parent company Bubang, which owns 100% equity.
A Cuchen official said, "The 2025 dividends were decided in accordance with relevant laws and the procedures of the board of directors and the general meeting of shareholders, within the scope of retained earnings secured by the company," adding, "We decided from the perspective of enhancing shareholder value after comprehensively considering our financial situation and management environment."
The market views it as having a strong character of cash redeployment within the group. Bubang touts subsidiary management and new business investments as its core business, but in recent years it has seen limited standout results from new investments and has relied on subsidiaries' cash generation. Last year it recognized a total of 18.8 billion won in dividend revenue from Cuchen and the distribution affiliate Bubang Distribution. That amount exceeds its separate net profit of 17.6 billion won for the same period.
Bubang invested about 11 billion won in research and development (R&D) over the past three years, but notable results in new businesses have not materialized. It has maintained an industry-average investment stance by allocating 2.15%–2.59% of revenue to R&D over the past three years, but in a landscape where competition in new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and smart home is accelerating, that level is conservative for securing new growth drivers.
Other subsidiaries' management results are also underwhelming. Facilities management company SCK swung to a loss last year, and software developer Biz & Tech Consulting has recorded losses for three consecutive years. As a result, some view the move as intended to concentrate the cash generated by Cuchen and Bubang Distribution at the parent for group-level management.
An industry source said, "The market looks more at where the money is used than at the dividends themselves," adding, "If the cash moved up to the parent is reinvested in mergers and acquisitions (M&A), new business investment, or technology development, it can be seen as group-level resource allocation, but otherwise it will inevitably be criticized as financial management dependent on affiliates' cash."