Hyosung Heavy Industries (298040.KS) shares have surged past 4 million won, making it the most expensive stock on Korea's main bourse. The stock has soared more than 53,700% in six years from its March 2020 low of 8,530 won. Amid the rally, an online post from an investor claiming to have put roughly 300 million won of his entire wealth into Hyosung Heavy just before entering prison six years ago has resurfaced, drawing fresh attention.
According to the Korea Exchange on Monday, Hyosung Heavy Industries hit an all-time high of 4.64 million won at one point during the previous session. As of 1:07 a.m., the stock was trading at 4.578 million won, down 0.41% from the previous close.
Just six years ago, Hyosung Heavy shares traded in the 8,000-won range. After bottoming at 8,530 won in March 2020, the stock gradually climbed and began accelerating sharply from early last year. From around 1.7 million won in December last year, shares crossed the 3 million won mark in just three months and jumped 59.28% in the past month alone.
As the stock surged, an investor's story has drawn renewed attention online. On Oct. 27, a post titled "Buy stocks before going to prison" appeared on an online community.
The writer, identified only as A, claimed to have purchased 30,000 shares of Hyosung Heavy Industries at 8,530 won per share using 261 million won in jeonse (a Korean lease system requiring a large lump-sum deposit instead of monthly rent) deposit money in March 2020, just before entering prison. A said he recently checked his brokerage account after being released upon completing his sentence and found the total valuation had ballooned to 105.21 billion won.
According to the details A disclosed, the return stood at 40,228%, with valuation gains reaching 104.949 billion won. "If I hadn't gone to prison, I probably would have sold when it hit 10,000 won. Ironically, going to prison turned out to be a stroke of luck. It's absurd," he wrote. "The amount is so absurd that I don't even know where to start."
The authenticity of the account, however, has not been verified. On the day A claimed to have bought the shares, total trading volume was 350,549 shares. Online observers have noted that it would have been realistically difficult for an individual investor to purchase 30,000 shares — about 10% of the day's total trading volume — at a price close to the low in a single transaction.
Behind Hyosung Heavy's stock surge lies explosive demand for power equipment driven by artificial intelligence (AI) data centers. AI data centers consume far more electricity than conventional data centers because they must operate high-performance chips and servers on a massive scale. Given that data centers require uninterrupted 24-hour power supply, demand is rapidly growing for power equipment such as transformers capable of delivering large volumes of electricity reliably.
The market views the power equipment sector as another "supply shortage cycle" following semiconductors. With expanding global investment in power infrastructure coinciding with AI data center buildouts, expectations for order books and earnings at related companies are rising.
Earnings are also supporting the share price. Hyosung Heavy Industries posted revenue of 5.9685 trillion won and operating profit of 747 billion won last year — the highest annual results on record. North American sales alone topped 1 trillion won, and the order backlog reached 11.9 trillion won, up 34% from the previous year.
The outlook for this year is also bright. According to brokerage consensus estimates, Hyosung Heavy's second-quarter consolidated revenue is projected at 1.8172 trillion won, with operating profit estimated at 287.6 billion won. Those figures represent increases of 19.1% and 75.1%, respectively, from the same period a year earlier.
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