Hana Financial Group announced on June 11 that it has released LINE Bank in Indonesia, a digital banking service provided in cooperation with LINE Corp., a Tokyo-based global mobile platform founded by Korea’s Naver Corp.LINE Bank is the first financial service that a Korean bank offers in Southeast
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. He can be reached at jaemin.ahn@nhqv.com. -- Ed. - Internet and game company shares, which led the 2020 stock market on the theme of ‘contactless’, have now entered a period of price correction. While the number of Covid-19 cases has yet to mea
The tender for eBay Korea, the third-largest e-commerce company in Korea, has narrowed down to a two-runner race between traditional distribution rivals -- Lotte and Shinsegae.Lotte Shopping and Shinsegae E-Mart submitted letters of intent to acquire eBay Korea in a tender held on June 7.Lotte Shopp
The Bank of Korea is planning to initiate a central bank digital currency (CBDC) experiment in August this year. The central bank recently disclosed its proposal request form for the experiment along with the fact that Samsung SDS is the consultant for the form.Under the circumstances, it is pointed
With the tender for eBay Korea imminent, competition is heating up among potential buyers to outsmart their rivals and acquire the coveted e-commerce company. As the heat of the competition rose excessively, the tender schedule was postponed once.Participants in the tender are busy tracking the move
The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology of Indonesia is considering introducing a new bill to make major content providers responsible for maintaining the quality of communication services.The bill is similar to the latest version of the Telecommunications Business Act of South Kore
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. She can be reached at jy.lee@nhqv.com. -- Ed. Sector earnings should continue to improve in 2H21 in response to both low base effect and deferred demand. With our key investment points including the continued strength of sports/outdoor category
The author is an analyst of KB Securities. She can be reached at shinay.park@kbfg.com. -- Ed. Stock may be sluggish over near term but climb over mid to long term We maintain BUY and our TP of KRW240,000 for E-mart. The stock may perform poorly over the near term but should continue trending upwards
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. She can be reached at jy.lee@nhqv.com. -- Ed. Shinsegae International’s 1Q21 results surpassed expectations thanks to strong demand for overseas fashion and cosmetics products. As overseas travel will likely remain challenging for the time bein
Naver and Kakao have acquired North American web novel content platforms, starting a full-scale web content platform war.Naver announced on May 11 that it has completed the acquisition of the world's largest web novel platform "Wattpad." The company’s board of directors decided to acquire Wattpa
KOSPI rose 1.63 percent and closed at 3,249.30 points on May 10, led by foreign and institutional investors. However, from April 20 to May 10, they sold 2.9 trillion won and 1.8 trillion won of stocks, respectively. In that period, individual investors bought 4.9 trillion won of South Korean stocks.
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. She can be reached at hzl.lee@nhqv.com. -- Ed. CJ ENM logged a 1Q21 earnings surprise thanks to strong earnings at the media division. While investment in TVING content had yet to reach full swing, profitability of related works proved robust.
The author is an analyst of KB Securities. She can be reached at leesunhwa@kbfg.com. -- Ed. Maintain BUY and TP of KRW305,000 We maintain BUY and TP of KRW305,000 for HYBE. Despite the absence of new album releases by key artists, the company reported solid 1Q21 earnings backed by rich artist IP res
The Financial Supervisory Service announced on May 2 that the corporate tax payment of South Korea’s top 50 business groups in terms of market cap, which account for approximately 40 percent of the country’s GDP, dropped by no less than 62 percent from 28 trillion won or so last year.“The corporate
The author is an analyst of KB Securities. He can be reached at drlee@kbfg.com. -- Ed. Maintain BUY; Raise TP to KRW450,000 We maintain BUY on Naver. We raise our TP by 2.3% to KRW450,000 as we have revised up 2021E and 2022E OP by 0.6% and 3.2%, respectively, in light of the company’s growing marke
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. He can be reached at jaemin.ahn@nhqv.com. -- Ed. Eye-catching sales growth across all of NAVER’s major businesses (including ads, commerce, content, fintech, and cloud) is set to sustain throughout 2021.Sales growth first, then OP growth- We ma
The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) announced on April 29 the list of 71 business groups that have at least five trillion won in assets each and their 2,612 subsidiaries would become subject to the duty of public disclosure on May 1. The number of such groups increased by seven and the number of
The Korea Exchange is planning to actively help unicorns go public in order to prevent them from opting for foreign stock markets instead of the South Korean market.Korea Exchange Chairman Sohn Byung-doo met with the CEOs of securities firms on April 29. “After Coupang, an increasing number of South
South Korean platform service providers are entering Southeast Asian markets one after another. Naver and Kakao are at the head and Coupang and Baemin are following suit.Kakao Entertainment is about to launch its webtoon service in Thailand. The company established Kakao Entertainment Thailand last
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. She can be reached at hzl.lee@nhqv.com. -- Ed. NBT is a reward ad platform operator. It combines the earnings stability of Cashslide (B2C) and high growth of Adison Offerwall (B2B). Amid offerwall market growth, NBT stands to benefit significan