First Month of the Higher Delisting Market-Cap Threshold — 174 Below the Line, 465 Next Year

※ Data basis: retrieved 2026-07-18 (closing prices of the preceding trading day, all KRX-listed stocks). Common shares only; SPACs and REITs excluded.

From this month the market-capitalisation criterion for delisting has moved up another step. Under the Financial Services Commission’s overhaul of the delisting regime, from July 2026 a company falls foul of the market-capitalisation requirement if it is below KRW 30bn on KOSPI (Korea’s main board) or KRW 20bn on KOSDAQ (Korea’s growth-company market). In January 2027 those lines rise again, to KRW 50bn and KRW 30bn respectively (Financial Services Commission, “Delisting Reform Plan for the Swift and Rigorous Removal of Failing Companies”).

So how many stocks in the market today sit below that line? Here is the actual count as of today.

Tabulation: market capitalisation of all KRX-listed stocks (via FinanceDataReader) · threshold lines: the Financial Services Commission’s announced timetable

There are two points here. First, 174 companies are already below the current threshold. Falling short of the criterion does not mean immediate delisting — there is a process of administrative-issue designation and grace periods — but the sheer size of that list is different from the past. Second, apply the January 2027 threshold and 465 companies (18% of the total) fall below the line. On KOSDAQ that is roughly one stock in five. In other words, what “cheap” means in overlooked stocks investing is changing by regulation — because market capitalisation has itself become a condition of survival.

How the regime got here — why, and how, the steps were climbed

This change is not a single event but a pre-announced staircase. The Financial Services Commission and the exchange, under the banner of swift and rigorous removal of failing companies, decided to raise the market-capitalisation requirement in stages, and for KOSDAQ they moved the cycle of increases up to every half year.

Source: Financial Services Commission, “Delisting Reform Plan for the Swift and Rigorous Removal of Failing Companies”

It is not only market capitalisation that is going up. The revenue requirement climbs the same staircase — announced as KRW 3bn in 2025, then KRW 5bn in 2027, KRW 7.5bn in 2028 and KRW 10bn in 2029. With two thresholds rising at once, the smaller and quieter the company, the more it has to keep an eye on both requirements together.

The scale of the increases is large too. On the market-capitalisation requirement alone, KOSDAQ goes from KRW 4bn previously to KRW 30bn in 2027, a 7.5x rise, and KOSPI from KRW 5bn to KRW 50bn, a 10x rise. Unlike the old approach of adjusting the rules a little at a time over several years, the very speed of lifting the bar several-fold within one or two years shows the character of this overhaul — exactly as the phrase “swift and rigorous removal of failing companies” suggests.

Where are the 465 concentrated — by market cap, market and sector

Take apart the 465 that fall below the January 2027 threshold and the character of the list becomes clear.

Start with the speed at which the scale changes. Below the current thresholds (KRW 30bn on KOSPI, KRW 20bn on KOSDAQ) there are 174; apply the thresholds six months out (KRW 50bn and KRW 30bn) and there are 465 — 291 more, or 2.7x, in half a year. Because the bar rises every half year, the shortfall list thickens step by step unless companies can lift their market capitalisation. That means a stock that is safe today can be caught by the next half-year’s threshold, and it is also why this count has to be re-run every quarter.

Market capitalisation — clustered just below the line. Of the 465, 244 (52%) are bunched in the KRW 20–30bn band. KOSDAQ’s new threshold (KRW 30bn) sits right at the top of that band, so the list includes a large number of stocks that are safe today, above the current KRW 20bn, but would be caught by next year’s line. Only 24 are “deep” shortfalls below KRW 10bn; most are perched precariously around the threshold. Put another way, if share prices slip a little further, or if companies cannot lift their market capitalisation over the next half year, the list could thicken considerably.

Market — concentrated in KOSDAQ. Of the 465, 106 are on KOSPI and 359 on KOSDAQ. That is 20.6% of KOSDAQ common shares (1,744), roughly one stock in five, below next year’s line. KOSPI is relatively lower at 13.1%, but the absolute number (106) is hardly small.

Sectors — software and cyclical manufacturing. Group the 465 by sector and software and IT services are the largest at 63, followed by wholesale and retail at 40, machinery and equipment at 35, electronics and components at 33, auto parts at 28, metals at 20, chemicals at 20, pharmaceuticals and biotech at 19, and media and content at 18. Mixed together are the software and content names that once listed on growth expectations and the component and materials manufacturers that swing hard with their industry cycles — the result of the market pricing low where growth has cooled or profits have thinned.

The sector mix shows “why is it cheap” splitting into two branches. Software and IT plus media and content (some 80 combined) are mostly companies that listed on growth expectations and then saw that growth cool — revenue has stalled while the costs of remaining listed and the dilution continue. On the other side, manufacturers such as machinery, electronic components, auto parts, metals and chemicals (some 130 combined) are cyclicals that swing with their industries, and to which the market assigns only low multiples even in profitable years. The first group has to deliver “proof of growth” above the threshold; the second has to deliver “defence of profit”. Sorting the wheat from the chaff among overlooked stocks ultimately means distinguishing which of those two questions a company can answer.

51 are already under administrative or alert status — the weight of the list

Not all 465 carry the same risk. A good many are still ordinary stocks, but 35 have already been designated administrative issues and 16 are investment-alert issues, so at least 51 are already inside the exchange’s supervisory process (based on KOSDAQ segment labels). These are stocks where warning lights are already on for reasons unrelated to the market-cap shortfall — audit opinions, capital impairment, revenue shortfalls and the like — and which now face the new market-cap threshold on top. The other 400-odd, by contrast, trade normally today but form a reserve force that has to clear next year’s line under its own power.

There is a queue outside the list as well. 114 are in the adjacent band (from the threshold up to +20% above it), having only just cleared the current requirement. They meet the criterion today, but a 20% fall in the share price would drop them straight below the line. Given the daily volatility and thin trading value of small caps, 20% is not a thick cushion at all. Add the 465 below the line to the 114 in the adjacent band and about 580 stocks sit, to varying degrees, in the same zone of pressure — required to prove their survival through market capitalisation.

After a shortfall — it is not immediate removal

One important premise. Falling short of the market-capitalisation criterion does not mean delisting the next day. The process runs in stages. Generally, if the market-cap shortfall persists for a set period (for example, 30 consecutive trading days), the stock is designated an administrative issue, and if the requirement is still not restored within the prescribed period, it moves on to a substantive listing-eligibility review or delisting procedures. In between, the company is given an improvement period in which to lift its market capitalisation (through a price recovery or a market re-rating) or otherwise resolve the cause.

So the number 465 is less a “list of companies due to be delisted” than a “list of companies being asked to prove themselves”. Still, given the size of the list (18% of all common shares) and the density just below the line (244 in the KRW 20–30bn band), the direction is unmistakable: administrative-issue designations and substantive reviews will be far more frequent over the next few years than in the past. Indeed, 51 have already entered administrative or alert status for other reasons.

What it means for overlooked stocks investing

For an investor in overlooked stocks, this regulatory change is not background knowledge but a change in the rules. In the past, “small market cap and cheap” was the language of opportunity, because a pricing error can survive where there is no spotlight. Now that market capitalisation has become a condition of remaining listed, however, being small can itself be a state with a clock running on it. A stock that looks cheap below the line may in fact be one where the timer on administrative-issue designation and its grace period is already ticking.

The same perspective applies when looking at individual stocks. Monami, covered by The Accidental Order, is the classic case — amid structural losses it is defending its market capitalisation on the back of patriotic-consumption support buying, and whether that market capitalisation can sustain itself above a rising threshold has become the key thing to watch in that stock. When market capitalisation itself, rather than earnings, becomes the proposition — that is the new grammar of overlooked stocks investing that the regulation has created.

This is why The Accidental Order’s overlooked stocks screening sets its market-cap floor not at the current line but at the January 2027 line (KRW 50bn on KOSPI, KRW 30bn on KOSDAQ). Putting a stock whose market capitalisation would breach the removal requirement next year into today’s candidate pool is putting a time bomb into the pool. This has become a market in which, before approaching something merely because it is cheap, you first have to check whether the company has the stamina — profits, assets, cash — to sustain itself above the threshold. A shortfall is not the same as delisting, but the direction indicated by the size and density of the list is clear: for the next few years, a substantial part of Korea’s small-cap market will sit under the pressure of “prove yourself or be removed”.

Basis of the tabulation

Only common shares were counted, and SPACs and REITs were excluded (the market-cap requirement for delisting is applied on a common-share basis). Preferred shares were excluded because separate criteria apply to them. Administrative-issue and investment-alert designations were identified only from KOSDAQ segment labels (KOSPI administrative issues require separate verification), suspension of trading was not reflected, and whether a company that falls short is actually removed depends on the exchange’s designation and grace procedures. Market capitalisation is based on the closing prices of the trading day preceding the retrieval date and may change thereafter.

Further reading: Monami — between the delisting threshold and support buying · earnings season preview

In short, market capitalisation is now both a measure of “how cheap is it” and a measure of “how long can it hold out”. In a market where both faces have to be read at once, the 465 below the line and the 114 in the adjacent band are the numbers that show the scale of the pressure that will reshape Korea’s small-cap landscape over the next few years. The Accidental Order will re-run this count every quarter and, from within it, pick out the stocks with the stamina to prove themselves, carrying them through to individual analysis and stock tracking.

This article is for information purposes and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any particular stock.

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