Leeno Industrial hits 52-week high, eyes top 10 on Kosdaq

The stock price of South Korea’s Kosdaq-listed electronic testing components maker Leeno Industrial Inc., previously a small company whose market cap stood behind more than 100 firms on the same bourse 10 years ago, has been skyrocketing this year.

After the trading session on July 5, Leeno has become the 13th-largest company on Kosdaq, with a market cap of 2.85 trillion won ($2.52 billion).

The company’s stock price on Monday closed at 187,200 won ($165.55) a share, after touching a new 52-week high at 190,000 won ($168.06). Leeno’s year-to-date stock price growth is 38%.

The company’s stellar stock price growth in recent years is largely driven by strong earnings results. Leeno’s operating profit last year was 77.9 billion won ($68.9 million), up by 21% from 2019 at 64.1 billion won ($56.7 million). Analysts project that Leeno’s operating profit in 2021 will surpass 100 billion won ($88.5 million).

Established in 1978 and entered Kosdaq market in 2001, Leeno is the dominant leader in the global market for test probes, also called test pins, used in identifying defects in semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs), with more than a 70% share. Leeno also produces various types of sockets from those used for logic tests and memory chip tests to the ones for camera modules.
 
“While our test pins are more expensive than the ones made in Japan, they are more cost-effective in that their lifespan is much longer,” said Leeno’s founder and CEO Lee Chae-yoon.

The company’s CEO is known in the industry for his near-ceaseless efforts to maintain its competitive advantage in technology.

Lee said he regularly conducts meetings with mechanical engineering professors in Busan, where Leeno’s headquarters are located, and devises long-term corporate strategy based on engineering books rather than management books.

Thanks to the company’s sustained leadership in technology and strong earnings, South Korea’s securities industry has recently raised Leeno’s target price even further.

Kiwoom Securities Co. in a recent report has raised the company’s target price from 190,000 won ($168.06) to 220,000 won ($194.59) a share, projecting that this year’s operating profit will grow by 45% to 106.3 billion won ($94.1 million).  

“Leeno is expected to see further growth in its sockets business, with many new smartphone models set to be released in the second half of this year,” said Kiwoom Securities analyst Pak Yu-ak.

Pak also highlighted that Leeno will also benefit from the fast expansion of metaverse-related sectors that use the company’s test pins.

“Leeno’s test pin segment will maintain strong performance with the fast growth of virtual reality (VR) devices such as Oculus Quest 2,” added Pak.

Write to Eun-seo Koo at koo@hankyung.com
Daniel Cho edited this article.