43.6% operating margin, no real debt, current ratio 7.55x. Little to fault there. But revenue is up 18.9% and net income only 8.4% — margin is squeezed.
Compiled from public financial data. Not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. · Source: DART annual reports · TradingView (TTM), as of 2026-09-18
Botulinum toxin requires a strain, manufacturing licences and clinical data, so entry is hard. Hugel won US FDA approval for its main product Letybo in 2024 and began selling in March 2025; Americas revenue rose more than 420% in Q1 2026. The company reaffirmed guidance for US revenue to more than double in 2026. It has launched in Malaysia and works with Sanhuang Pharma in China. Gross margin is 75.8% and operating margin 43.6%, while total debt fell from KRW 100.7 billion in 2022 to KRW 29.1 billion in 2025.
| Toxin has real barriers to entry | A strain, manufacturing licences and clinical data are all required, so new entrants cannot arrive easily. Approvals must also be obtained country by country. |
| US FDA approval | Letybo approved in 2024, on sale from March 2025. Americas revenue rose more than 420% in Q1 2026 and the company maintains guidance for more than 100% growth for the year. |
| High-margin structure | Gross margin 75.8% and operating margin 43.6%. It generates KRW 425.1 billion of revenue with 629 employees. |
| A near debt-free balance sheet | Debt-to-equity 0.027x and current ratio 7.55x. Total debt fell from KRW 100.7 billion in 2022 to KRW 29.1 billion in 2025. |
Revenue rose every year from KRW 124.2 billion in 2016 to KRW 425.1 billion in 2025, with no down year (9-year CAGR +14.7%). Net income, by contrast, fell three years running from KRW 72.8 billion in 2017 to KRW 42.0 billion in 2020 before recovering to KRW 140.9 billion in 2025. Operating margin also dropped from 56.0% in 2017 to 33.0% in 2018 before returning to 47.2% in 2025. Over the trailing twelve months revenue is KRW 479.6 billion (+18.9%) while net income is KRW 158.0 billion (+8.4%), less than half the revenue growth rate.
| Year | Revenue (B$) | Op. Income (B$) | EPS ($) | P/E (x) | ROE (%) | Op. Margin (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 1242 | 633 | 4271 | 28.3 | 18.8 | 50.9 |
| 2017 | 1821 | 1019 | 6232 | 36.2 | 15.4 | 56 |
| 2018 | 1824 | 602 | 5215 | 25.6 | 9.8 | 33 |
| 2019 | 2046 | 681 | 3532 | 41.9 | 6.3 | 33.3 |
| 2020 | 2110 | 781 | 3344 | 58.6 | 5.8 | 37 |
| 2021 | 2452 | 972 | 4662 | 29.2 | 7.6 | 39.6 |
| 2022 | 2817 | 1014 | 5008 | 28.2 | 7.3 | 36 |
| 2023 | 3197 | 1178 | 7934 | 19.2 | 12.1 | 36.8 |
| 2024 | 3730 | 1662 | 11988 | 19.8 | 17.5 | 44.6 |
| 2025 | 4251 | 2009 | 12820 | 21.6 | 16.1 | 47.2 |
— = no data for that year/metric (P/E omitted before EPS turned positive)
Operating Income YoY growth:
9Y CAGR: Revenue +14.7% · Operating Income +13.7% · Net Income +14.0% · EPS +13.0%
Revenue, operating profit, net income and equity come from DART annual reports (consolidated, owners of the parent). Year-end closing prices are from Yahoo Finance and TTM figures from TradingView. P/E is the year-end close divided by that year's EPS; ROE is net income attributable to owners over average equity.
Hugel has the largest market capitalisation of the three Korean botulinum toxin companies. Its P/E sits below Medytox at 29.3x and above Daewoong at 6.4x, though Daewoong derives much of its business from pharmaceuticals outside toxin, which limits the comparison. All three have a history of disputes over the origin of their toxin strains, which adds a variable outside the operating business.
| Metric | ★ Hugel | Medytox | Daewoong Pharmaceutical |
|---|---|---|---|
| P/E (TTM) | 14.9x | 29.3x | 6.4x |
| Market cap | KRW 2.55T | KRW 0.44T | KRW 1.28T |
| Operating margin | 43.6% | — | — |
TradingView, 2026-09-18.
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