Gravity Co., Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRVY) will pay a cash dividend for the first time. The board of the Seoul-based games publisher resolved on August 7, 2026 to pay an interim cash dividend for fiscal year 2026 of KRW 4,400 per share, a total of KRW 30,575,160,000, to holders of record on June 30, 2026, with payment set for September 2, 2026. The resolution was furnished to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on Form 6-K the same day the company published second quarter results.
What the annual report said in April
Gravity’s Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025 is explicit on the point. Under the heading Dividend Policy it states: “Since our inception, we have not declared or paid any dividends on our common shares.” The same paragraph adds that any future decision would depend on cash requirements for future capital expenditures and investments and other factors the board deems relevant, and states that the company has “no intention to pay dividends in the near future”.
That document carries beneficial ownership data as of April 24, 2026. GungHo Online Entertainment, Inc. holds 4,121,737 common shares, or 59.3% of the 6,948,900 shares outstanding. Approximately 47.5% of the common shares were held in the United States in the form of American depositary shares as of December 31, 2025, across approximately 5,014 beneficial holders.
The mechanism the payment uses
The Korean Commercial Code and Gravity’s articles of incorporation allow one interim dividend per fiscal year, and only where retained earnings at the end of the first half exceed the retained earnings left undisposed at the time of the preceding year’s general shareholder meeting. The decision is made by board resolution and is not subject to shareholder approval, and any interim dividend must be paid to shareholders of record as of June 30 of that fiscal year. That is exactly the shape of the August 7 resolution, which names a June 30, 2026 record date and reached the market without a shareholder vote.
The annual report also sets out the ceiling. The total interim dividend in a fiscal year may not exceed net assets on the preceding year’s balance sheet after deducting capital, accumulated capital and earned surplus reserves, amounts confirmed for distribution at the annual general meeting, voluntary reserves, earned surplus reserves to be set aside following the interim payment, and unrealised gains. Separate provisions require an earned surplus reserve of at least 10% of the cash portion of an annual dividend unless accumulated reserves already reach one half of stated capital.
For holders of American depositary shares the amount is set in won and arrives in dollars. The depositary converts and may deduct fees. Korean withholding tax on dividends to non-residents runs at 22% including local income tax where no treaty applies, with reduced rates of 16.5% or 11.0% available to United States residents who are beneficial owners, depending on shareholding ratio.
The disclosure route is Rule 13a-16 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, at 17 CFR 240.13a-16, which requires a foreign private issuer to transmit a Form 6-K promptly after information is made public by the issuer, by its country of domicile or by a foreign exchange with which it has filed. Both the results and the dividend resolution were signed by Chief Financial Officer Heung Gon Kim.
The quarter that accompanied it
Total revenues for the second quarter ended June 30, 2026 were KRW 161,884 million, or US$ 104,524 thousand, flat against the first quarter and down 5.2% year on year. Operating profit was KRW 27,582 million, down 10.5% sequentially and up 40.2% from a year earlier. Profit before income tax expense was KRW 32,470 million, against KRW 38,325 million in the first quarter and KRW 18,706 million a year earlier. Net profit attributable to parent company was KRW 24,341 million, against KRW 29,394 million and KRW 13,245 million on the same comparisons.
The mix moved in opposite directions. Online game revenues rose 14.5% sequentially to KRW 29,660 million from KRW 25,906 million and were up 35.0% from KRW 21,971 million a year earlier, which the company attributed mainly to Ragnarok Online in Thailand and Ragnarok Online America Latina, partly offset by lower revenue from Ragnarok Online in Japan. Mobile game revenues fell 3.2% sequentially to KRW 128,611 million from KRW 132,800 million and 10.7% year on year from KRW 144,003 million. Other revenues were KRW 3,613 million.
Cost of revenue was KRW 109,541 million, down 0.6% from KRW 110,224 million, which the company attributed to lower salaries. Operating expenses rose 18.9% to KRW 24,761 million from KRW 20,824 million on higher research and development spending and salaries, and were down 33.2% from KRW 37,064 million a year earlier on lower advertising. Cash and cash equivalents plus short-term financial instruments stood at KRW 649,231 million as of June 30, 2026. Won amounts were converted at KRW 1,548.78 to US$ 1.00, the noon buying rate in effect on June 30, 2026 quoted by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Analysis: the record date and what it fixes
The June 30, 2026 record date sits before the August 7, 2026 board resolution. That follows from the Korean interim dividend regime, which fixes the record date by statute rather than by the board, so the register closed before the resolution was passed. Anyone who bought after June 30, 2026 is not a holder of record for this payment. The mechanism also explains why the decision could be taken by the board alone and why it arrived alongside second quarter numbers rather than at a general meeting: the statutory test for an interim dividend is measured on first-half retained earnings, so results and eligibility are established by the same closing.
The size is best read against the balance sheet rather than the quarter. Cash and short-term financial instruments were KRW 649,231 million at the end of the first half, and the payment is KRW 30,575,160,000. Quarterly net profit attributable to the parent was KRW 24,341 million. The distribution is therefore a modest drawdown on the liquidity pile and roughly the scale of a quarter’s earnings, and Gravity has stated no policy, rate or frequency to go with it. The filings establish a single resolution, not a dividend programme.
The operating figures for the quarter move in more than one direction. Total revenue was flat sequentially and lower year on year, and the sequential decline came from mobile, the larger line at KRW 128,611 million. Online, the smaller line at KRW 29,660 million, is the one growing. Profit improved sharply year on year, but the release attributes the year-on-year fall in operating expenses to lower advertising for specific titles rather than to structural cost reduction, and operating expenses rose 18.9% sequentially. On the figures disclosed, part of the 40.2% year-on-year operating profit gain reflects the higher advertising spend in the year-earlier quarter.
Ownership is the other lens. GungHo holds 59.3% of the shares, so the majority of the KRW 30,575,160,000 flows to a single corporate shareholder. The filings reviewed here state no reason for the change from the dividend policy language in the annual report. What a careful reader watches next is whether a year-end dividend follows, which under the articles requires either shareholder approval at the annual general meeting or an unqualified audit opinion plus unanimous audit committee agreement, and whether the next annual report replaces the Dividend Policy language that the August resolution has now overtaken.
