[Click eStock] Cube Enter New Business Sailing Smoothly... Will Lead Growth in Artist Activity Performance

[Asia Economy Reporter Myunghwan Lee] IBK Investment & Securities announced on the 30th that Cube Entertainment is expected to achieve its highest performance this year, thanks to the active activities of its affiliated artists. The company also evaluated that new business preparations are progressing smoothly.

IBK Securities projected Cube Entertainment's sales for this year to increase by 38.2% compared to the same period last year, reaching 99.4 billion KRW, and operating profit to surge by 255.2% to 4.2 billion KRW. It was understood that album sales in the first quarter of this year reached at least 400,000 copies, surpassing the annual sales of 300,000 copies in 2020-21. The total annual album sales are expected to increase by 139.7% from last year to 800,000 copies.

The active activities of affiliated artists are credited with driving the performance. Cube Entertainment's flagship idol group, BTOB, made a full-group comeback in February after four years, proving their intellectual property (IP) power by ranking first on the iTunes K-POP album charts in 14 regions worldwide. The girl group (G)I-DLE, which recently released their first full-length album, also dominated domestic and international music charts. Their first-week album sales alone reached 170,000 copies, setting a new personal record, and their music video views have surpassed 70 million, marking the beginning of a global fandom expansion. The idol group PENTAGON also achieved their first music show win five years after their debut.

New business is also progressing smoothly. Cube Entertainment has completed the establishment of a joint venture with Animoca Brands to build a music metaverse platform. They plan to conduct a pre-sale of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in the second to third quarter, followed by issuance. The platform launch is scheduled for the fourth quarter. The first NFT utilizing Cube Entertainment's flagship artist IP video is expected to be released in April, and IBK Securities analyzes that the direction of the new business will become more concrete thereafter.

Researcher Hwanwook Lee of IBK Securities forecasted, "While stable growth in the cosmetics distribution sector's performance is expected, the highest performance is anticipated due to the active activities of flagship artist IPs."

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