Key points
- Pintel faces a decisive listing deadline Wednesday
- A new share sale didn't close the shortfall
- The company says delisting won't hurt its business
Pintel (핀텔, 291810), a Korean AI video analysis company, faces delisting from the Kosdaq after Monday's share-price plunge put a key market-value threshold beyond reach before Wednesday's deadline.
Its shares fell 29.94 percent to their daily limit of 833 won ($0.61) on September 28, leaving Pintel worth 11.7 billion won ($8.6M), below the exchange's 20 billion won ($14.7M) minimum.
Even maximum daily gains of 30 percent on Tuesday and Wednesday would leave the company short, The Elec (디일렉) reported. Those gains would take the shares to 1,406 won ($1.03) and its market value to 19.7 billion won ($14.5M), still about 300 million won ($221,000) below the requirement.
How the deadline works
Pintel was put on the exchange's watch list on July 24, after its market value stayed under 20 billion won for 30 trading days in a row. That count began before the higher minimum took effect in July. In a July 15 notice, Pintel said its value had been under 20 billion won for 25 trading days in a row, citing a transition clause in the new rule, Top Star News (톱스타뉴스) reported. From the designation date, a company has 90 trading days to stay at or above 20 billion won for 45 trading days in a row, or the company faces delisting.
September 28 was Pintel's 44th trading day on the list, according to The Elec. If the company is still below the line on Wednesday, the 46th day, too few days remain to reach 45 in a row. Pintel was above 20 billion won from September 10 to 17, then fell back under it on September 18, which reset its count to zero, News1 (뉴스1) reported.
The Korea Exchange won't wait for the full 90 days and will decide on the delisting after Wednesday's close, The Elec reported. The exchange also said Pintel doesn't get an exception for having listed through a special route for technology companies, since Pintel already received a grace period on its sales requirement. If the delisting is confirmed, the exchange halts trading the next day and then sets a seven-trading-day period for final sales, with no daily price limit, The Elec reported. The report didn't say when that period would begin.
More shares, still below the threshold
Pintel tried to lift its market value by issuing more shares. In a share sale decided on September 1, the company sold 2,657,218 new shares at 1,129 won ($0.83) each, raising 3 billion won ($2.2M) and adding 23.4 percent to its share count. The new shares started trading on September 22. The stock fell 12.92 percent that day, and Pintel's market value ended at 16.7 billion won ($12.3M).
Investors who bought at 1,129 won and still hold the shares are down 26.2 percent at Monday's close, The Elec calculated.
A move to the Konex, Korea's smaller third market, is also unlikely. Financial regulators allow it only for companies delisted over market value that made an operating profit in two of the last three years, or in one year with at least 20 billion won in equity, The Elec reported. Pintel posted an operating loss of 3.66 billion won ($2.7M) in 2022 and hadn't made a profit through the end of last year. Its equity was 15.8 billion won ($11.6M) at the end of June.
What the company says
Pintel's main business is AI software that analyzes high-resolution video, and local governments and public agencies are its main customers. Its software is used at smart intersections, in school zones, and for crime-prevention monitoring, according to News1.
"We plan to expand our public-sector (B2G) business into the corporate (B2B) and consumer (B2C) markets," a Pintel official told The Elec.
"We can't name a specific market, because the product will be for general use," the official added. The Elec reported that Pintel has no orders from those markets yet.
"Even if we're delisted, there will be no impact on the business," the official said.
Pintel isn't the only company caught by the rule. The Kosdaq raised its minimum market value from 4 billion won to 15 billion won ($11.0M) at the start of this year, then to 20 billion won in July. Eight Kosdaq companies have been ordered delisted for falling short in the past three months, Seoul Economic Daily (서울경제) reported. Companies worth between 15 billion and 20 billion won could start facing the same deadline in mid-October, the newspaper added. In July, about 307 Kosdaq companies were below the price or market-value levels that can start the delisting process.
The company official's comments are translated from Korean. Won figures are converted at 1,358.74 won to the dollar, the Yahoo Finance rate on September 28, 2026.
