LG Group’s fourth-place rating in mixed market capitalization is below menace as its main companies in electronics, cosmetics, and secondary batteries are concurrently faltering. Whereas the inventory costs of associates, aside from one, have been on a downward trajectory this 12 months, fifth-ranked HD Hyundai Group is threatening the fourth-place place, buoyed by favorable circumstances in shipbuilding, power, and energy gear industries.
In line with the Korea Change on Jan. 11, the mixed market capitalization of LG Group’s listed associates, excluding most popular shares, stood at roughly 165.345 trillion gained as of Jan. 9. This represents a few 3% lower from 170.246 trillion gained on the finish of final 12 months. This underperformance is notable in comparison with the KOSPI index, which rose 8.8% throughout the identical interval.
The market capitalizations of all different high 5 conglomerates by market cap—Samsung, SK, Hyundai Motor, and HD Hyundai—elevated throughout this era, excluding LG Group. Samsung Group’s mixed market cap surged by roughly 130 trillion gained in simply six buying and selling classes, pushed by the semiconductor super-cycle, whereas SK Group additionally elevated by practically 100 trillion gained. Hyundai Motor Group, which offered its bodily synthetic intelligence (AI) enterprise blueprint at CES 2026, solidified its third-place place as core affiliate inventory costs soared by over 25%.
Notably, fifth-ranked HD Hyundai Group noticed its mixed market cap improve by roughly 10% from the top of final 12 months, as energy infrastructure funding growth pushed by AI knowledge heart proliferation coincided with expectations for Korea-U.S. cooperation. Consequently, the market cap hole between LG Group and HD Hyundai Group, which as soon as reached 26 trillion gained, narrowed to round 11 trillion gained as of Jan. 9.
LG Vitality Resolution, which holds the most important weight in LG Group’s market cap, has skilled inventory value changes as bulletins of large-scale order contract cancellations have continued attributable to slowing progress within the electrical automobile market. Its inventory value has fallen 1.5% this 12 months and declined by over 20% previously month. Fourth-quarter outcomes final 12 months additionally fell wanting market expectations, returning to losses after a 12 months. On account of this influence, LG Vitality Resolution lately surrendered its third-place place in home inventory market capitalization to Samsung Biologics for the primary time in roughly six months since July 17 final 12 months.
LG Electronics additionally confirmed weak inventory efficiency, recording its first quarterly working loss in 9 years. Though this mirrored the influence of one-time prices of roughly 300 billion gained in voluntary retirement packages, evaluations emerged that the loss was bigger than anticipated, inflicting the inventory value to shut down greater than 3% on the day of the earnings announcement.
Each LG Show and LG Chem face grim prospects for each efficiency and inventory costs attributable to intensified competitors with Chinese language firms. LG Chem’s inventory value has fallen practically 20% over the previous month, whereas LG Show additionally dropped 9% throughout the identical interval. Moreover, most main associates, together with LG HelloVision (-6.2%), LG Innotek (3.5%), LG Uplus (-2.5%), LG CNS (-2.1%), and LG Corp. (-0.5%) confirmed declining developments even amid the robust home inventory market rally this 12 months.
LG Family & Well being Care, the one firm to document optimistic returns, has additionally confronted considerations about fourth-quarter earnings shock final 12 months. Yoo Hye-rim, a Samsung Securities researcher, mentioned, “We count on an working lack of 48.8 billion gained in LG Family & Well being Care’s cosmetics enterprise within the fourth quarter of final 12 months,” including, “A conservative strategy is critical because the profitability of family items and beverage companies can be more likely to decline in comparison with the earlier quarter.”
Market views recommend that LG Group could have entered structural weak point past short-term efficiency struggles. Certainly, Korea Buyers Service offered unfavorable outlooks for the petrochemical and secondary battery industries during which LG Group operates this 12 months. An asset administration trade insider defined, “Funding sentiment has been dampened as most associates face poor enterprise outlook forecasts whereas consecutively asserting earnings shocks,” including, “It will likely be troublesome to count on a rebound with out structural adjustments.”
