How to Calculate with Korean Financial Statement Units: KRW 100 Million, Million, and Thousand
Align currencies, monetary units, and share counts across statements and notes. Korean won unit conversions and an EPS example illustrate scaling errors and rounding differences.
A financial statement number is incomplete without its currency, presentation unit, and period. Even if the primary statements use millions of won, some note tables may use thousands of won or individual won, while EPS may be stated in won per share. Record original units and convert to one consistent unit before calculating to avoid scaling errors.
Read the unit above each table before copying figures
When transferring an amount, retain its account name, original value, original unit, and converted value. A figure of 1,000 in millions of won is KRW 1 billion, or 10 units of KRW 100 million, rather than KRW 10 million. If a number looks unusual, check the difference between thousands and millions before concluding that the company's scale changed sharply. Units may be repeated for individual note tables, so do not automatically apply the first page's unit to the entire document. Follow table explanations on whether parentheses indicate negatives and whether a dash means zero or not applicable; do not arbitrarily fill blank cells with zero.
Convert both money and share counts for per-share measures
Dividing earnings stated in units of KRW 100 million by a share count stated in individual shares leaves a scaling factor of KRW 100 million in the result. To calculate EPS in won, convert earnings to individual won or adjust the share-count denominator to the corresponding scale. Likewise, multiplying a share price in won by shares stated in millions does not directly produce market capitalization in individual won. Monetary units cancel in a percentage calculation if they match, but differing currencies or periods in the numerator and denominator do not produce a meaningful ratio.
Currency translation and unit conversion are different tasks
Converting millions of won to units of KRW 100 million changes only the presentation scale; converting dollars into won introduces an exchange rate assumption. A company's reporting currency may also differ from its functional currency, so check its financial statement policies. Do not arbitrarily assume that the same exchange rate applies to asset balances and income and expenses over a period. If reported won figures are available, retain them separately from figures you translate yourself. Adding rounded figures at the displayed scale can create small differences from the original total, so determine whether a calculation requires exact amounts in individual won.
Worked example
Hypothetical example: A note reports net income of 2,500 in millions of won and weighted-average shares of 5,000,000. Net income is 25 units of KRW 100 million, or KRW 2,500,000,000. EPS is 2,500,000,000÷5,000,000=KRW 500. Separately, cash of 750,000 in thousands of won is KRW 750 million, or 7.5 units of KRW 100 million. Converting back to individual won to verify the arithmetic, then converting to the desired presentation unit, allows comparison even when two tables use different units.
What to check
- Record the currency and presentation unit separately for each table.
- Verify conversions to units of KRW 100 million by dividing the amount in won by 100,000,000.
- Align the scaling of earnings and share counts in EPS calculations.
- Handle blanks, dashes, negatives, and rounding differences according to the original table's presentation.
Sources and primary materials
This is educational material about research methods. For an actual company decision, verify the filings and primary sources for the relevant period.