[Click eStock] "HYBE, Sales Forecast Down Due to BTS Activity Suspension"

"BTS Member Solo Activities Revenue Expansion Momentum"

[Asia Economy Reporter Ji Yeon-jin] Ebest Investment & Securities announced on the 17th that it has lowered its annual sales estimate and target stock price to 295,000 KRW for HYBE due to the suspension of BTS's group activities, which excludes world tours and related merchandise sales from the revenue. The buy investment opinion was maintained.

HYBE's annual sales this year are expected to reach 1.8277 trillion KRW, a 45.5% increase from the previous year, and operating profit is projected to increase by 33.4% to 254 billion KRW. These figures represent a reduction of 8.5% in sales and 29.1% in operating profit compared to previous estimates. The BTS group's share, which accounted for 90% of HYBE's total sales, is gradually decreasing to around 50-60% as of the first quarter this year. Besides BTS, SEVENTEEN (2.239 million copies) and TXT (1.632 million copies), who made comebacks in May, ranked first and second in album sales respectively. Including rookie LE SSERAFIM's (412,000 copies) sales, the total reaches approximately 4.3 million copies. With the addition of BTS group's full album sales in June, second-quarter album sales are expected to reach an all-time high.

Researcher An Jin-ah of Ebest Investment & Securities said, "Even considering the earnings decline due to the temporary absence of BTS group's full activities within HYBE, there is momentum for simultaneous expansion of direct and indirect artist revenues through the sequential solo activities of the seven members, strong performance of artists other than BTS, and entry into the gaming business (end of June)." She added, "With the revamp of the Weverse 2.0 platform and entry into the NFT business, expansion of the artist portfolio, and the full-scale resumption of offline concerts in the second half of the year, the upward trend in performance is expected to continue from the second quarter onward."

Researcher An emphasized, "Providing diversified content utilizing the IP of the seven member artists derived from the single BTS group can also enable sales expansion and margin securing." She added, "The ARMY fandom is not expected to decline due to BTS's individual activities; rather, it could serve as an opportunity to expand fandom inflow due to the members' new individual appearances."

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