Flex System files for preliminary Kosdaq listing review

Flex System, a company specializing in aerospace and defense testing solutions, said Tuesday it had submitted a preliminary listing application to Korea Exchange to pursue a Kosdaq listing. The filing comes about two months after the company passed a technology evaluation in July, with Daishin Securities serving as the listing underwriter.

Founded in 2001, Flex System provides full-cycle test and evaluation solutions covering development, mass production and operations in the aerospace and defense sectors, along with aerospace sensors and maintenance, repair and overhaul services for military aircraft components. Last year, the company's annual sales more than doubled from the previous year, continuing a steep growth trajectory.

The company is the only domestic firm with a track record of building large-scale aerospace system test infrastructure, having independently developed and constructed propulsion test facilities for the Naro (KSLV-I) and Nuri (KSLV-II) launch vehicles, as well as an integrated control and measurement system for the KF-21 Iron Bird. The company says the KF-21 Iron Bird system — developed entirely in-house over roughly three years — laid the groundwork for conducting integrated tests of the KF-21 domestically without relying on foreign technology.

Drawing on expertise accumulated during the development of aircraft fuel system test equipment, Flex System has expanded into the aerospace sensor business and now supplies fuel quantity sensors for the KF-21. The company has also recently entered the aircraft component MRO business, pursuing strategic expansion into areas that create synergies with its existing operations.

Flex System has also signed a supply contract with private launch vehicle developer Perigee Aerospace and begun full-scale development of a mobile, standardized methane engine combustion test facility.

"The higher the technical complexity of a final product and the greater the cost of development failure, the more valuable the test equipment used to verify it in advance becomes — both technically and economically," said Lee Chung-hwan, chief executive of Flex System. "Through our Kosdaq listing, we will expand investment in research and development and production infrastructure, build up our specialist workforce, and grow into an aerospace and defense testing solutions company capable of meeting the demands of advancing domestically developed weapons systems."