A 30-something office worker surnamed Kim, who became an Emart shareholder two years ago, began shareholder activism in January alongside about 1,000 other individual investors. The movement was driven by Emart’s stock price plunging from 105,000 won in early February 2023 to around 64,000 won by the end of last year. After joining ACT, a minority shareholder advocacy platform, Kim and others sent a letter to Emart demanding the complete cancellation of treasury shares and the adoption of a cumulative voting system.
This month, Emart announced a corporate value enhancement plan that includes canceling half of its treasury shares, partially addressing the demands of Kim and ACT. “Seeing Emart’s stock price rise by over 15% this month gave me a sense of the impact of shareholder activism,” Kim said.
An increasing number of individual investors, like Kim, are taking direct action, demanding corporate governance reforms and greater shareholder returns. Online shareholder activism platforms such as ACT and HeyHolder have played a key role in mobilizing them. Unlike traditional online stock forums, these platforms use MyData (personal credit information management) to verify actual shareholders, strengthening their cohesion. As of Feb. 25, ACT and HeyHolder had a combined membership of 120,000 investors holding stocks worth 13.1 trillion won ($9.1 billion).
South Korea is one of the most active countries for shareholder activism. According to the Shareholder Activism Annual Review 2025 by U.K. corporate governance research firm Diligent Market Intelligence, Korea ranked third globally last year in the number of companies targeted by activist investors, following the U.S. and Japan. This marks the second consecutive year Korea has held this position. Analysts attribute the growing activism to the government’s corporate value-up policies since last year, which have heightened awareness of minority shareholder rights.
Retail investors’ demands range from share buybacks (Millie’s Library) to the adoption of cumulative voting systems (Emart, Lotte Shopping) and stock tender offers (T’way Air). Ultimately, their goal is to strengthen corporate governance and increase stock prices.
“Individual investors' understanding of capital markets has significantly improved compared to several years ago,” said Yoon Tae-joon, research director at Act. “They’ve moved beyond simply demanding higher dividends to making requests that could be challenging for companies, such as requiring companies to enshrine regular investor relations (IR) meetings in their bylaws or disclose executive compensation criteria to shareholders.”
Some retail investor-led activism has already yielded results. Last December, minority shareholder platform HeyHolder launched a campaign against Kosdaq-listed IT firm Infovine, criticizing its excessive treasury stock holdings and passive dividend policy while calling for a bonus share issuance and a stock buyback. Late last month, Infovine announced plans to repurchase 370,000 common shares worth approximately 10.3 billion won ($7.2 million).
Analysts suggest that the collective actions of individual investors could drive meaningful corporate change. Kim Yun-jeong, an analyst at LS Securities, said, “If legislative amendments to Korea’s Commercial Act further strengthen shareholder activism, foreign investors are likely to have a more favorable view of the Korean capital market.”
