South Korea Industrials: Defense and Robotics: Takeaways from US marketing

Research evidence excerpt

South Korea Industrials: Defense and Robotics: Takeaways from US marketing

Equity Research

29 June 2026 | 9:02AM KST

South Korea Industrials: Defense and Robotics: Takeaways from US

marketing

During our US marketing trip (New York & Boston) last week, investor discussions Do Hyoung Kim

+82(2)3788-1376 |

focused on 2H catalysts and candidates that could spark broader sector strength, dohyoung.kim@gs.com

Goldman Sachs (Asia) L.L.C., Seoul

especially given Korea’s heavy skew toward memory names. In this context, the Korea Branch

Defense and Robotics sectors were heavily discussed. We believe Korea Defense and Joshua Kim

Robotics sectors are poised to see decent performance in 2H. +82(2)3788-1791Goldman Sachs (Asia)| joshua.kim@gs.comL.L.C., Seoul

Branch

Korea Defense

Korean defense drew strong investor interest, driven by: 1) significant 2Q

underperformance, 2) low correlation with AI within Industrials, and 3) accelerating

order momentum. This combination positions the sector as an attractive option to

diversify the portfolio while offering both relative value and upcoming catalysts.

We attribute the 2Q underperformance to three factors: 1) stagnant order

development, 2) market skew toward memory, and 3) share price weakness among

global defense peers. However, with order momentum expected to build in 2H (link

to latest note), an expanding Western European TAM, and compressed multiples that

discount these catalysts, we expect Korean defense to regain momentum in 2H26.

We believe key pivotal developments for the Korea Defense sector that occurred in

the past month are as follows:

1) Switzerland exploring Korean air defense: Switzerland is considering Korean air

defense systems due to delay in Patriot deliveries (link)