[Click eStock] "HiteJinro, Beer Market Share Appears to Take 1st Place"

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jihwan] Kiwoom Securities maintained its 'Buy' rating and target price of 40,000 KRW for HiteJinro on the 7th, stating that "high sales growth is expected to continue, supported by the market share increase of Terra and Jinro."

Park Sangjun, a researcher at Kiwoom Securities, explained, "The consolidated operating profit was 32.7 billion KRW, falling short of market consensus, but sales exceeded consensus by 7%. Profitability underperformed market expectations due to increased marketing expenses and labor costs."

However, the sales growth trend is stronger than expected, and it is analyzed that the intensity of competition in the soju market may ease from the first quarter of this year. In particular, the beer segment is evaluated to have a high possibility of multiple upgrades as the market share gap with the number one player is significantly narrowing.

Researcher Park said, "Terra and Jinro recorded sales volumes of approximately 2.8 million and 1.3 million boxes respectively in January, exceeding the December sales volumes of 2.48 million and 960,000 boxes last year."

He added, "Especially in the case of beer, the market share gap with the number one player has narrowed to around 4 percentage points this year, increasing expectations for reclaiming the number one market share."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.