Kakao Pay 'Smiles', Kakao Bank 'Cries'

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Seon-ae] On the day Kakao Pay made a spectacular debut on the stock market, Kakao Bank plummeted.

On the 3rd, Kakao Pay's opening price was set at 180,000 won, double the public offering price, and it rose to 230,000 won, near the upper limit price (234,000 won) in the early trading session. Afterwards, the gain narrowed due to profit-taking, and the price fell below 200,000 won, but with a market capitalization exceeding 24 trillion won, it ranked 13th on the KOSPI. The difference from Kakao Bank, which is 10th in KOSPI market capitalization, was 5 trillion won. At its high price that day, its market capitalization even surpassed Kakao Bank.

On the other hand, Kakao Bank dropped sharply by about 5%, falling below 61,000 won and threatening the 60,000 won level. This is interpreted as the effect of the disappearance of material related to Kakao Group due to Kakao Pay's listing and the downgrade of investment opinions by securities firms.

Kyobo Securities downgraded its investment opinion on Kakao Bank from Buy to Hold, stating that the current stock price is overvalued compared to the appropriate price-to-book ratio (PBR) of 5.0 times. However, it raised the annual performance forecast for Kakao Bank and increased the target price from the previous 45,000 won to 59,000 won.

Researcher Kim Ji-young of Kyobo Securities explained, "We suggest a Hold investment opinion by applying more conservative assumptions regarding the overall housing mortgage loan market growth rate due to recent changes in the domestic environment related to housing mortgage loans and credit loans."

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