SK Square (402340.KS) Q1 2026: ₩5.89T Reserve Freed at Hynix Peak

SK Hynix equity-method income of ₩8.3 trillion lifted operating profit by 400%, while a ₩5.89 trillion capital reserve transfer multiplied dividend-eligible retained earnings by 18.6 times in a single quarter.

Source: Q1 2026 Quarterly Report — Filed May 2026 with DART | Consolidated Financial Statements | Unit: ₩ billions

On a parent-only basis, ₩273.9 billion of SK Square's ₩274.3 billion quarterly revenue — 99.85% — came from a single line: dividends received from SK Hynix. Stand-alone operating revenue from the parent itself was just ₩0.4 billion, essentially zero, confirming that SK Square is, in practical terms, the SK Hynix dividend pipeline itself. In the same quarter, the company transferred ₩5.89 trillion of share-premium capital reserve into retained earnings under Note 17, expanding parent-only unappropriated retained earnings from ₩349.2 billion to ₩6.49 trillion — an 18.6-fold jump. On a consolidated basis, operating profit of ₩8.28 trillion was dominated by equity-method gains from SK Hynix alone of ₩8.33 trillion, accounting for 100.6% of the line. The quarter therefore captured both the cyclical peak of memory earnings and the simultaneous unlocking of the largest pool of distributable capital in the company's history.