Even if Jisoo falters... Kakao continues soaring day after day

New High After Stock Split
Strong Earnings Boost Expectations for KakaoBank and Pay Subsidiary IPOs

[Asia Economy Reporter Minwoo Lee] Despite the KOSPI's stagnation, Kakao continues its soaring streak. With fundamentals improving across all sectors including commerce, advertising, and content, and the IPOs of subsidiaries Kakao Pay and Kakao Bank coming into clear view, expectations are rising.

As of 11:07 AM on the 10th, Kakao's stock price rose 4.26% from the previous day to 135,000 KRW. It broke the intraday record of 132,500 KRW set on April 15, when the stock underwent a 5-for-1 split, marking a new high. Converted to the pre-split price, this corresponds to 675,000 KRW. After dropping to 109,000 KRW on the 14th of last month, it has steadily climbed about 24%. Its market capitalization also rose to 4th place for the first time. During the same period, the KOSPI rose about 2%, and Naver, another leading internet platform stock, increased by only about 9.8%.

With solid performance and growth continuing across commerce, advertising, and content sectors, and subsidiaries Kakao Pay and Kakao Bank preparing for IPOs, expectations have grown. According to financial information provider FnGuide, Kakao's consolidated market consensus for Q2 this year is revenue of 1.3459 trillion KRW and operating profit of 178.9 billion KRW, representing increases of 41.25% and 82.88% respectively compared to the same period last year. Over the past year through Q1, Kakao's quarterly revenue averaged a 40.3% year-over-year increase, and operating profit rose about 103% on average.

Kakao Bank and Kakao Pay, considered the largest IPO candidates this year, have entered the IPO review stage. They submitted preliminary listing review applications to the Korea Exchange on April 15 and 26, respectively. Since the review period is 45 business days, all reviews are expected to be completed within this month. The listings of these two companies are expected to significantly boost Kakao's equity value. Kakao holds 56.10% and 32.33% stakes in Kakao Pay and Kakao Bank, respectively. With Kakao Pay's corporate value estimated to reach up to 14 trillion KRW, there is speculation that Kakao's market capitalization could surpass Naver's.

Researcher Donghee Kim of Meritz Securities explained, "The IPOs of Kakao Pay and Kakao Bank will make history in the domestic fintech (finance + technology) market," adding, "The growth and revaluation of Kakao Entertainment and Dunamu, the operator of the virtual asset exchange Upbit, are also positive factors."

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