Ahn Cheol-soo, a lawmaker of the People Power Party, has purchased an additional 10,000 shares of AhnLab, the security company he founded. Following his first purchase of the company's stock since AhnLab's listing late last month, he moved to expand his stake again just one month later.
According to the Korea Exchange's corporate disclosure channel KIND, Ahn bought 10,000 common shares of AhnLab on the open market in six separate transactions from the 22nd to the 29th of this month. The total purchase amount was approximately 533 million won.
As a result, Ahn's holdings in AhnLab increased from 1.9 million shares to 1.91 million shares. His stake rose 0.09 percentage points to 17.17 percent from 17.08 percent. Ahn is the founder and largest shareholder of AhnLab.
Earlier, Ahn bought 40,000 shares of AhnLab for approximately 2.118 billion won on the open market from the 30th of last month to the 6th of this month. Late last month marked the first time Ahn directly purchased the company's stock since AhnLab listed on the KOSDAQ market in 2001. Including this latest purchase, Ahn has bought a total of 50,000 AhnLab shares for approximately 2.65 billion won over the past month.
AhnLab's share price has recently fluctuated in the low-to-mid 50,000 won range. The stock, which stood at 52,500 won on the 30th of last month, rose to 55,500 won on the 10th of this month but later gave up those gains. It closed lower at 53,000 won the previous day from 54,500 won on the 27th of this month. On this day, it fell to as low as 50,800 won during intraday trading, marking a 52-week low, before ending at 52,000 won, down 1.89 percent from the previous trading day. Although Ahn has expanded his stake over the past month, the share price has failed to show a clear upward trend, continuing to move within a range.
Alongside the disclosure of Ahn's stock purchase, AhnLab also announced its second-quarter earnings this day. AhnLab's consolidated revenue for the second quarter of this year was 71.3 billion won, up 14.5 percent from a year earlier. Operating profit was 5.4 billion won, up 55.6 percent over the same period.
Ahn founded AhnLab's predecessor, Ahn Cheol-soo Computer Virus Research Institute, in 1995. The company listed on the KOSDAQ market in 2001 and changed its name from AhnLab Soft to AhnLab in 2012.
