NH Investment & Securities Exits Entire Dentis Stake, Raising Revaluation Expectations as Overhang Eases

NH Investment & Securities has disposed of its entire stake in Dentis. In a condensed report on large shareholdings filed on the 28th, NH Investment & Securities said its number of Dentis shares had fallen to 0, with its ownership ratio at 0%. Based on the previous report, NH Investment & Securities and parties with a special relationship held 1,774,547 Dentis shares, or 10.09%.

The change resulted from the disposal, following the exercise of a put option, or early redemption claim, on 1,774,547 shares underlying convertible bonds held by the specially related party NH-Moorim Dental Care New Technology Investment Association No. 1. NH Investment & Securities listed the reasons for the report as “early redemption of convertible bonds and on-market trading” and the investment purpose as “simple investment,” respectively.

There are aspects that make it difficult to view this as a simple investment exit. Dentis issued KRW 8 billion in new fourth-series convertible bonds to repay its existing convertible bonds and attached a 70% call option, or purchase claim, to the new bonds. As a result, the amount that could be converted into shares in the future was limited to approximately 30% of the total, or about 770,000 shares. NH Investment & Securities, an existing convertible bond investor, exercised its put option, effectively eliminating the approximately 1.77 million shares that could have been issued through conversion.

The structure has drawn attention because the measure substantially reduced the overhang that had weighed on Dentis’ share price gains. A reduction in potential selling pressure also lowers existing shareholders’ concerns about dilution of the value of their shares. Dentis has 15,809,700 total issued voting shares.

The backdrop to the financial restructuring is Dentis’ clear recovery in performance. Dentis’ operating profit in the first half of 2026 was KRW 5.7 billion, a 697.5% increase from the same period a year earlier. The company recorded operating profits in both the first and second quarters, and repaying the existing convertible bonds and attaching a call option to the new convertible bonds at a time when cash-generation capacity was improving can be interpreted as an effort to proactively manage capital-market risks based on the recovery in performance.

The dental implant market in which Dentis operates is on a global growth trajectory. The global implant market was valued at approximately $5.4 billion, or about KRW 7 trillion, as of 2025, and is projected to grow at an average annual rate of 6.8% to 9.0% through 2034, reaching approximately $9.8 billion to $11.0 billion. South Korea is the world’s second-largest exporter of dental implants after Switzerland. Its exports exceeded KRW 1 trillion in 2023, and the country recorded an average annual export growth rate of 19.4% over the past 10 years.

Dentis has expanded beyond simple implant manufacturing into the broader digital dentistry sector, including dental operating lights, 3D printers and clear aligners. It has also begun operating a smart clean factory capable of producing up to 10 million sets annually and is accelerating its entry into premium markets in North America and Europe based on U.S. FDA and European CE certifications. Industry analysts say interest from overseas institutional investors could increase as the resolution of the overhang issue coincides with improved performance.