[Click eStock] "Yes24 to Reemerge as the Coupang of the Book Industry... Kakao Bank Stake Also Highlighted"

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunseok Yoo] KTB Investment & Securities analyzed on the 18th that Yes24 will be reborn as the Coupang of the book industry. No investment opinion or target price was presented.

Yes24 is an online cultural product distribution company that distributes books, music albums, DVDs, and sells movie and performance tickets online. As of the first quarter, it has approximately 18.95 million cumulative members. Its sales and operating profit for the first half of the year were 327.3 billion KRW and 6.9 billion KRW, respectively, increasing by 9.4% and 20.3% compared to the same period last year.

Jae-yoon Kim, a researcher at KTB Investment & Securities, said, "This is due to the accelerated shift of book purchasing demand from offline bookstores to online bookstores after COVID-19," adding, "Yes24 is the number one online bookstore and is the biggest beneficiary of this change in the book market."

Additionally, Kim analyzed that the value of Yes24's stake in KakaoBank is likely to be highlighted. Yes24 currently holds a 1.2% stake in KakaoBank. It invested a total of 45.9 billion KRW by participating in the KakaoBank consortium in 2016 and secured 7,619,593 shares. He explained, "Although 0.47% of the stake was sold for 48.5 billion KRW last December, the remaining stake value still amounts to 496.6 billion KRW," and added, "We believe that Yes24's operating value and the value of its KakaoBank stake have not been reflected in the current market capitalization."

Meanwhile, Yes24 plans to build a smart logistics center in Paju through the partial sale of its KakaoBank shares. The site is a large-scale complex of about 10,000 pyeong (approximately 33,000 square meters), and the investment is expected to be around 100 billion KRW. He emphasized, "Since the value of the KakaoBank stake held is about 500 billion KRW, it will be possible to build an industry-leading smart logistics center through partial sale," adding, "The establishment of a state-of-the-art smart logistics system will lead to high growth with secured profitability by increasing efficiency through reduced labor costs and faster delivery processing speed, which are key in cost control for the online bookstore business."

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