Shinsegae is building sales momentum after a difficult 2025.

Shinsegae – a major department store and duty-free operator in South Korea – has revealed a large fall in profit for its fiscal 2025 (the same as the calendar year). This regulatory filing was separate from its annual financial statement but made on the same day (11 February), as stipulated by the Korea Exchange (KRX).

Nevertheless, based on final-quarter revenue and profitability, the underlying momentum for the company now looks much healthier, and the retailer’s share price has surged by 47% year-to-date, reflecting investor confidence in the company moving forward.

KRX requires a separate public disclosure when a company has a 30% or more change in sales or profits/losses (15% in the case of large corporations).

In its filing, which can be viewed on the South Korean government’s corporate disclosure platform, Shinsegae revealed that in 2025, total company sales rose by +5.5% to KRW6.93 trillion/$4.79bn*. However, net income from continuing operations before income tax fell by -32.6% to KRW479.9bn/$331.5m, while net income was down by -66% to KRW63.5bn/$43.9m.

Shinsegae Duty Free sees Q4 turnaround

Based on Shinsegae’s regular filing of its fourth quarter and annual 2025 results published on the same day, it appears that the big losses above were sustained during the first nine months of the year, and stemmed in the fourth quarter.

In the case of the duty-free division, losses that were narrowed significantly in Q3 have been turned around further with operating income just creeping into positive territory at KRW2bn/$1.4m. This was on the back of consolidated sales of KRW599.3 billion/$441.4m, up +7.9%, in the quarter. The slightly larger department stores division had sales totalling KRW764.4bn/$528.5bn, up +5.9%, in the same period, while operating income increased to KRW143.3bn/$99.1m.

Store closures and Incheon Airport exits due to high rents, have been part of the reason for the turnaround in the duty-free business. In December, Shinsegae laid out growth plans targeting KRW10 trillion in revenue by 2030 by making core-store renovations, “normalising” duty-free operations, and strengthening premium- and VIP-focused strategies.

* FX conversions at today’s rate.

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