[Click eStock] "Kakao, Negative on Mobility Sale Equity Value"…Target Price Down

[Asia Economy Reporter Ji Yeon-jin] Daishin Securities announced on the 12th that it lowered the earnings forecast for Kakao's commerce business division and adjusted the corporate value to 45.5 trillion KRW, reflecting a decline in the value of its subsidiary's equity, and lowered the target stock price to 100,000 KRW.

Heo Ji-soo, a researcher at Daishin Securities, said, "The recent overhang issue of Kakao Pay and Kakao's plan to partially sell its stake in its subsidiary Mobility will negatively affect the equity value," adding, "Commerce sales this year are expected to increase by 44% year-on-year to 10.3 trillion KRW in transaction volume, but due to the Makers restructuring and the exclusion of Zigzag from consolidation, sales growth will be lowered to 13%."

However, since Kakao is preparing new business models based on KakaoTalk's high accessibility and technological capabilities, such as open chat advertising and transaction-type Talk Channels, and next year's performance is expected, the buy investment opinion was maintained.

Kakao's consolidated sales for the second quarter are expected to grow 37.7% year-on-year to 1.861 trillion KRW, while operating profit is expected to decrease by 2% to 159 billion KRW. The platform business is driven by a 43.7% growth in other platform businesses despite a slowdown in Talk Biz, and Mobility is expected to achieve a record high sales in the 200 billion KRW range in the second quarter following 65% growth in the first quarter.

Researcher Heo said, "Due to a shortage of taxi supply, T Blue and Ventti premium calls have increased, and a return to profitability is expected in the second quarter," adding, "Talk Biz sales are expected to grow 21.6% in the second quarter, and Biz Board lacks clear rebound factors until the second half, but Talk Channel and Alim Talk will continue steady growth in the 40% range," he predicted.

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