Hankook & Company000240.KS

About Hankook & Company

Hankook & Company is the holding company that sits atop the Hankook group, best known for its controlling stake in tiremaker Hankook Tire & Technology. Beyond that anchor holding, it runs an operating business of its own in energy storage, manufacturing lead-acid batteries under the AtlasBX name for vehicles and industrial uses. The structure emerged from the 2012 split of the former Hankook Tire into a holding entity and an operating company. Its income combines battery sales with dividends and brand fees collected from affiliates across the group.

Valuation revolves around the customary Korean holding-company discount to the value of its Hankook Tire & Technology stake, so the shares often behave as a discounted proxy for the tire maker. The wholly owned battery operation gives it standalone earnings unusual among pure holding companies, tempering the discount argument. Family control, and past disputes over succession within the founding family, are the main governance considerations. Battery exports to replacement markets abroad add a modest cyclical stream distinct from the tire business.

Hankook & Company emerged from the 2012 division of the original Hankook Tire into a holding company and an operating tiremaker. The holding entity, first called Hankook Tire Worldwide, was renamed Hankook Technology Group in 2019 and adopted the Hankook & Company name in 2020. Its operational dimension deepened in 2021 when battery maker Hankook AtlasBX, with roots in Korean storage-battery manufacturing reaching back to the 1940s, was merged into the holding company, converting it from a pure stakeholder into a hybrid holding-operating firm. Group leadership passed to Cho Hyun-bum, a son of honorary chairman Cho Yang-rai, after an intra-family contest.

The AtlasBX operation gives the company genuine manufacturing economics: lead-acid batteries are sold largely into replacement channels, where demand recurs on battery life cycles and distribution relationships matter more than technology shifts, with exports reaching the Middle East, the Americas, and Asia. Lead is the dominant input, and its price passes through to customers with a lag that creates margin cycles. On the holding side, influence rests on the controlling stake in Hankook Tire & Technology, whose global tire franchise underwrites the group's expansion into components, including the thermal-management acquisition executed through the tire company. Stewardship of the Hankook brand completes its role.

Company profile by LineVest editorial. Journalism, not investment advice. Commission a full DART-based report on Hankook & Company →