Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEP) Stock Price & How to Invest
Last updated July 2026
Short answer
KEP is the New York listing of Korea Electric Power Corporation, the state-controlled monopoly that moves and sells nearly all of South Korea's electricity across a grid it owns outright. It changes hands near three times trailing earnings and well under reported book value, which says less about a bargain than about who sets its prices: the government that owns 51.1% of it.
KEP stock price
As of 2026-08-18, Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEP) last closed at $11.41, down 18.0% over the past year. Over the past 52 weeks it has traded between $11.32 and $23.26.
Prices are daily closing prices from Yahoo Finance and may be delayed. For the live quote, check your broker or Korea Electric Power Corporation's investor relations page. Walnut is informational, not investment advice.
What does Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEP) do?
Korea Electric Power Corporation, universally called KEPCO, is South Korea's electricity system in corporate form. The parent runs transmission and distribution and acts as the single buyer in the country's cost-based power pool, purchasing roughly 545,000 gigawatt hours a year through the Korea Power Exchange and reselling it to end customers at government-approved rates. Generation sits in subsidiaries: Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power for the reactors, and five thermal companies (KOSEP, KOMIPO, KOWEPO, KOSPO and EWP) for coal and gas. The company reports five segments (transmission and distribution, nuclear generation, non-nuclear generation, plant maintenance and engineering services, and others) and runs 31 projects in 12 countries, including the 5,600 MW Barakah nuclear complex in the UAE. The Korean government, directly and through the wholly state-owned Korea Development Bank, held 51.1% of the shares at the end of 2025, and Korean law requires it to keep at least 51%.
The financial history here is a policy history. When coal and LNG spiked in 2021 and 2022 while the government held retail tariffs down, KEPCO piled up roughly KRW 43 trillion of cumulative operating losses across 2021 to 2023, including a KRW 4.2 trillion operating loss in 2023 alone. Rate increases and cheaper fuel then reversed it, with operating profit of about KRW 8.5 trillion in 2024 and roughly KRW 14 trillion in 2025, and the annual dividend rising from a token ~$0.05 per ADS to ~$0.41. First-half 2026 suggests the cycle is turning back: fuel expense rose 8.8% while operating profit fell 16.6% year over year. The argument buried in the ~3x trailing earnings and ~0.4x reported book value is whether that whipsaw repeats, or whether the post-2023 tariff normalisation is structural.
What's driving Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEP)?
1. Tariffs that cover cost, and the reform behind them
The swing from a KRW 4.2 trillion operating loss in 2023 to roughly KRW 14 trillion of operating profit in 2025 came mostly from rates catching up to fuel, not from volume or efficiency. The next step is a regional differentiated tariff system, which was headed for public hearings in the second half of 2026 with finalisation targeted by year end. Management has been explicit that reaching its leverage target depends on stronger operating profit and further tariff increases rather than on trimming bond issuance.
2. A generation mix tilting back toward nuclear
KEPCO buys nuclear power into the pool at roughly KRW 94 per kilowatt-hour, against about KRW 131 for coal and KRW 153 for LNG, so the national fuel mix sets its input cost directly. Korea's 11th Basic Plan raises nuclear from about 23% of generation to 35% by 2038, adding 2,800 MW between 2026 and 2030 and a further 5,600 MW through 2038. Thirty-six coal units totalling 18.6 GW are scheduled to retire by 2038, with a full coal exit targeted for 2040.
3. Grid capex against a legislated borrowing ceiling
Capital spending is planned at about KRW 23.1 trillion for 2026, of which KRW 10.7 trillion went out in the first half, KRW 4.9 trillion of it on transmission and distribution and KRW 2.3 trillion on nuclear. That expands the regulated asset base, and it also has to be funded, while the KEPCO Act caps outstanding bonds at five times capital plus reserves. Retained earnings therefore gate the investment programme, which is why tariff policy and capex plans get argued about as one question in Korea.
4. Deleveraging on a stated timetable
Consolidated debt to equity stood at 257.1% at the half-year, down from 262.9% at the end of 2025, against a management target below 200% by the end of 2027. The KRW 133.3 trillion of borrowings is 98.9% won-denominated and 95.1% fixed rate at an average 3.1%, so a move in US rates does not reprice it. Progress against that 200% figure is probably the cleanest public read on whether tariff reform is genuinely holding.
What are the risks to Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEP)?
The controlling shareholder and the price regulator are the same government, and Korea has repeatedly capped the quarterly fuel cost adjustment when household bills got politically difficult, which is how roughly KRW 43 trillion of operating losses accumulated between 2021 and 2023. That squeeze has already begun to return, with first-half 2026 fuel expense up 8.8% to KRW 10.1 trillion, operating profit down 16.6%, and management flagging that fuel may stay elevated into the second half because international prices reach domestic wholesale rates with a lag. Volume offers no cushion either, since industrial demand at roughly 51% of sales fell 2.2% year over year. Against KRW 49 trillion of total equity the company carries KRW 133 trillion of borrowings, so one bad tariff year compounds fast. US holders take on two further layers: only about 25.5 million ADSs are outstanding, some 2% of the shares, and every return is translated back through a won that has weakened materially against the dollar.
Is KEP a buy or a sell?
We give no verdict on Korea Electric Power Corporation. Both cases are real, which is why the question is contested at all, so here is the strongest version of each.
The case for buying. Tariffs that cover cost, and the reform behind them. The swing from a KRW 4.2 trillion operating loss in 2023 to roughly KRW 14 trillion of operating profit in 2025 came mostly from rates catching up to fuel, not from volume or efficiency.
The case against. The controlling shareholder and the price regulator are the same government, and Korea has repeatedly capped the quarterly fuel cost adjustment when household bills got politically difficult, which is how roughly KRW 43 trillion of operating losses accumulated between 2021 and 2023.
Read the full bull and bear case on KEP, including what would have to change to break either one. Walnut is not an investment adviser.
How is Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEP) valued? (approximate, August 2026)
A simple financial snapshot. These are approximations and refresh quarterly; for current figures see Korea Electric Power Corporation's investor relations page or your broker.
- Revenue (TTM): ~KRW 97.6 trillion (~$69B)
- Operating profit (TTM): ~KRW 13 trillion (~$9.2B), ~13% margin
- Net income (TTM): ~KRW 7.8 trillion (~$5.5B)
- Market cap and multiple: ~$15.1B, ~3x trailing earnings, ~0.4x reported book
- Total borrowings: ~KRW 133 trillion (~$94B), 257% debt to equity
- Dividend per ADS: ~$0.41 annual, ~3.5% yield, ~10% payout
KEPCO reports in Korean won under IFRS and files a 20-F as a foreign private issuer, so every dollar figure above is an approximation struck at roughly KRW 1,415 to the dollar in August 2026. One ADS represents one-half of a common share, which means the NYSE quote runs at about half the Seoul price and per-ADS earnings and dividends are half the per-share numbers. The low headline multiple rests on a trailing year that included the most favourable tariff environment in a decade, and first-half 2026 has started to unwind exactly that.
Who competes with Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEP)?
State-controlled utility ADRs
The closest read-across is not a US utility but another listed company whose government both owns it and sets its prices. Huaneng Power International (HNP) ran the identical frozen-tariff-versus-spiking-coal squeeze in China in 2021 and 2022, while Eletrobras (EBR) and Cemig (CIG) in Brazil and Enel Chile (ENIC) carry political pricing risk in different forms. All of them trade on low single-digit or high single-digit multiples for broadly the same reason KEP does.
Large regulated utilities in developed markets
NextEra (NEE), Duke (DUK), Southern (SO) and Dominion (D) are what a US investor typically owns instead, and the contrast is instructive. Their regulators are mandated to allow a return on invested capital, and the shares carry roughly 15x to 20x earnings and 1.5x to 2x book value. The gap between those multiples and KEPCO's is largely a price on regulatory reliability, not on the quality of the poles and wires.
Korea's generation supply chain
KEPCO's own KOSPI-listed affiliates (KEPCO Plant Service & Engineering, KEPCO E&C, KEPCO Nuclear Fuel) plus private producers such as SK E&S and GS EPS sell into the same cost-based pool that KEPCO buys from, so a pool price generous to generators is a cost line for the parent. None of them carry a US listing. That makes KEP the only direct route into the Korean power system from an ordinary US brokerage account.
What stocks are similar to Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEP)?
Other names that sit close to KEP: same theme, named as a direct competitor, or held beside it in the same funds. Each entry says which. Worth a look if you are thinking about diversification within a thesis rather than concentration on one ticker.
How to invest in Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEP)
There are three common ways to get KEP exposure. Buy shares (or fractional shares) directly at any major broker. Hold an ETF that includes it, which spreads the position across many companies. Or build it into a focused thematic portfolio, so KEP sits alongside other stocks that express the same thesis.
Walnut takes the portfolio route. Describe a thesis where KEP fits (for example “AI infrastructure” or “dividend-growth large-caps”) and the AI proposes 5 to 6 constituents with target weights. You review the plan and fund it through your own broker when you're ready.
New to this? Start with how to invest in stocks, see how to analyze a stock with AI, or compare the best AI stock analyzers.
The bottom line on Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEP)
KEP is a cheap-looking utility whose earnings are decided by policy rather than by a market, so the multiple is really a judgment on how long Seoul lets tariffs cover cost.
More on Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEP)
Whether KEP is worth buying today depends more on your time horizon and what you already hold than on any single call. We walk through valuation, what would have to go right, and the risks in is KEP a buy or a sell?, and where the stock could go from here in the KEP stock forecast.
For income investors, whether KEP pays a dividend and how the payout looks is covered in does KEP pay a dividend? And to weigh KEP against a peer, read the full side-by-side comparisons: KEP vs CIG and KEP vs ENIC.
Wondering how KEP fits the portfolio you already own? Walnut is an AI investing app that connects your brokerage read-only and answers questions like that about your actual holdings: overlap, concentration, and how each position tracks the S&P 500. Compare the best AI portfolio analyzers or see the best AI investing apps in 2026.
Investing in Korea Electric Power Corporation with AI
Connect the broker you already use and ask Walnut's AI how KEP fits what you actually hold: whether you own it already through a fund, what it would do to your concentration, and how it has tracked the S&P 500. Read-only by default, and you approve anything before it reaches your broker.
FAQ
What does Korea Electric Power actually do?
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KEPCO owns and operates South Korea's transmission and distribution grid and acts as the single buyer in the country's cost-based power pool. It purchases roughly 545,000 gigawatt hours a year through the Korea Power Exchange, from its own generation subsidiaries and from independent producers, then sells that power to end customers at government-approved rates. Generation itself is held in six main subsidiaries, led by Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power.
What currency does KEPCO report in?
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Korean won, under IFRS, in a 20-F filed with the SEC rather than a 10-K, because KEPCO is a foreign private issuer. Trailing twelve-month revenue of about KRW 97.6 trillion converts to roughly $69 billion at about 1,415 won to the dollar, and that conversion moves whenever the exchange rate does. A US holder's return therefore blends the stock's performance in won with the won's performance against the dollar.
Why does KEP trade at around three times earnings?
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The trailing year captured an unusually good stretch, with operating profit near KRW 14 trillion in 2025 after a KRW 4.2 trillion operating loss in 2023. Investors have watched that line swing violently with government policy, so the market applies a low multiple to earnings it does not treat as durable. The shares also sit well below reported total equity of about KRW 49 trillion, reflecting the same doubt about returns earned on that asset base.
Who sets South Korean electricity rates?
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The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment approves them in consultation with the Ministry of Finance and Economy, subject to review by the Korea Electricity Commission. A quarterly fuel cost adjusted charge has existed since January 2021 and is designed to pass fuel prices through to bills, but the government can cap it and has done so. That is how one company posts several years of record losses and then a record profit without changing what it does.
Does KEP pay a dividend?
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Yes, annually rather than quarterly. The most recent payment was about $0.414 per ADS, with a December 31, 2025 ex-date and an April 2026 payment date, up from roughly $0.048 the year before as profitability recovered. That works out to about a 3.5% trailing yield on a payout ratio near 10%, and the KEPCO Act bars any dividend until accumulated deficits are cleared and a legal reserve is funded.
How much debt does KEPCO carry?
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Roughly KRW 133 trillion of borrowings, about $94 billion, against KRW 49 trillion of total equity and KRW 255 trillion of total assets. Consolidated debt to equity was 257.1% at the half-year, against a stated target below 200% by the end of 2027. The debt is 98.9% won-denominated and 95.1% fixed at an average 3.1% rate, and the KEPCO Act separately caps outstanding bonds at five times capital plus reserves.
What are the main risks in owning KEP?
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Policy dominates, since the government owns 51.1% and approves the rates that determine whether the company earns anything. Fuel prices come second, and first-half 2026 already showed fuel expense up 8.8% with operating profit down 16.6%. Industrial demand at about half of sales fell 2.2%, the balance sheet leaves little slack for a poor tariff year, and won weakness erodes dollar returns even when the shares work in Seoul. The company disclosed 706 lawsuits as a defendant at the end of 2025, with about KRW 800 billion claimed and KRW 352 billion provisioned, and no securities class action among them.
Walnut is informational, not investment advice. Financial figures on this page are approximations; always verify current numbers with Korea Electric Power Corporation's investor relations page or your broker before making investment decisions.