Why Buldak ramen is an US$8 billion brand
For now, investors know that despite Trump’s protectionism, young people are interested in exotic tastes and aesthetics, and that’s worth billions
WHEN it comes to instant noodles, there’s no Korean discount. Only a Korean premium.
Samyang Foods, the manufacturer of Buldak ramen, has gained 93 per cent this year. Trading at 26 times forward earnings, it boasts an US$8.1 billion market cap, as much as bigger rivals Japan’s Nissin Foods Holdings and Korea’s Nongshim combined.
This rally has also made chief executive Kim Jung Soo, who married into a conglomerate family and turned around the instant-noodle company after it declared bankruptcy in the late 1990s, a rare billionaire in her own right in the country’s male-dominated business world.
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