The Federation of Korean Industries said in its report on Dec. 6 that the top 30 business groups in South Korea are planning to make an environmental investment of 153.2 trillion won for nine years to come with regard to their ESG management.The investment includes multiple global M&A deals. For exa
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on Nov. 20 that the number of South Korean startups whose annual sales exceed 100 billion won increased from 617 to 633 last year and the 633 include 62 new entries.In addition, the 633 include 17 with annual sales of at least one trillion won and the 17 i
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. He can be reached at jaemin.ahn@nhqv.com. -- Ed. The Internet world is ever rapidly changing. New concepts such as the metaverse, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), blockchain, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have surfaced as major th
The Korea Fair Trade Commission announced on Nov. 16 that the ratio of internal transactions is higher in unlisted subsidiaries than in listed subsidiaries of major business groups and higher in owner-led groups than in ownerless groups. It also said that the ratio tends to be proportional to the ow
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. She can be reached at hzl.lee@nhqv.com. -- Ed. During its 2021 HYBE Corporate Briefing held on Nov 4, HYBE announced its: 1) entry into the NFT market; 2) consolidation of fan community platforms; 3) release of interactive games; and 4) expansi
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. She can be reached at mj27@nhqv.com. -- Ed. AmorePacific is projected to sustain strong growth thanks to labor restructuring at both home and abroad, its high-margin DFS & e-commerce businesses, and luxury brand Sulwhasoo. In 2022, with the sal
The authors are analysts of Shinhan Investment Corp. They can be reached at eoyeon.hwang@shinhan.com and younghoon.song@shinhan.com, respectively. – Ed. 3Q21 OP meets consensus at KRW105.4bn (+13.9% YoY)CJ Logistics posted operating profit of KRW105.4bn (+13.9% YoY) on sales of KRW2.8tr (+2.6% YoY)
CJ Group chairman Lee Jae-hyun has unveiled a plan to invest 10 trillion won in four major growth engine areas by 2023 to drive innovation and future growth. It is the first time in 11 years that Lee has come to the forefront and presented his vision.Lee appeared in an in-house broadcast program to
Klim Ventures, a startup accelerator based in South Korea, announced on Nov. 2 that it appointed Kim Sang-hun, former CEO of NAVER, as a member of the board of directors and the chair of the ESG Advisory Committee.Klim Ventures focuses on early-stage technology companies that have a positive influen
The author is an analyst of KB Securities. He can be reached at drlee@kbfg.com. -- Ed. Maintain BUY; raise target price to KRW240,000 We maintain BUY and raise our TP to KRW240,000 for CJ ENM. Derived using DCF model (8.54% WACC, 1.0% TGR), our TP equates to 25.0x implied P/E. We raise our 2021E-22E
Korea Exchange announced on Oct. 24 that the aggregate value of KOSPI and KOSDAQ was 2,603.6465 trillion won on Oct. 21, up 72.8 percent as compared with the end of 2016.In that period, KOSPI rose from approximately 2,000 points to 3,000 points or so and KOSDAQ rose about 60 percent to 1,000 points
Naver is planning to establish an artificial intelligence (AI) company in partnership with Softbank of Japan. Naver is likely to provide AI technology and human resources, while Softbank is highly likely to provide capital and global networks.Naver and Softbank have started negotiations to create an
The author is an analyst of KB Securities. She can be reached at shinay.park@kbfg.com. -- Ed. Maintain BUY; Lower target price by 8% to KRW240,000 We maintain BUY on E-mart but lower our TP by 8% to KRW240,000 as we reflect revisions to 2021E/2022E OP (-10%/-3%). We believe shares are undervalued at
The Inclusive Framework held an online general meeting on Oct. 8 and finalized the Pillar 1 and 2 agreements and action plans on the digital tax. As a result, multinational IT companies doing business in South Korea such as Amazon, Google, Facebook and Netflix are likely to have to pay more taxes in
Domestic consumer goods companies that have received investment from MBK Partners are drawing attention by making an impressive performance improvement. Analysts say that MBK Partners chairman Kim Byung-ju’s omnichannel strategy, which calls for strengthening online channels, is gradually paying off
The Korea Fair Trade Commission, the Financial Services Commission and politicians are increasingly regulating big tech companies and this has led to sharp stock prices declines on the part of Naver and Kakao. It is Kakao that has been hit harder.From Sept. 7 to 16, the market cap of Naver dropped 1
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. He can be reached at jooyh@nhqv.com. -- Ed. Initiate coverage on retail sector with Positive ratingInitiating coverage on the domestic retail sector, we present a Positive view towards the industry. By sub-industry, we propose a Positive view t
The author is an analyst of Shinhan Investment Corp. He can be reached at mj1224@shinhan.com. -- Ed. Relatively immune to regulatory concernsNAVER shares have declined sharply since the Financial Services Commission suggested moves to strengthen regulations on fintech platforms. We believe the corre
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. He can be reached at jaemin.ahn@nhqv.com. -- Ed. - Shares of NAVER and Kakao have fallen sharply in the wake of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS)’s announcement of its online financial platform service case review results on Sep 7, and a
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. She can be reached at hzl.lee@nhqv.com. -- Ed. Adhering to a Buy rating, we raise our TP on HYBE to W370,000 in consideration of the firm’s leading position in the fandom platform arena, backed by the securing of global artists for its Weverse