Naver Financial Grants Stock Options to All Employees

Sangjin Park, CEO of Naver Financial

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunju Lee] Naver Financial is granting stock options to all employees. This is the first time Naver Financial has granted stock options uniformly to all its employees.

On the 21st, Naver Financial announced that it would grant stock options to all 489 employees, including CEO Sangjin Park and CTO Seungbae Lee. CEO Park will receive 45,000 shares, CTO Lee 17,000 shares, and a total of 388,000 shares will be granted to the 489 employees.

The exercise price of the stock options was set at 93,250 KRW. A simple calculation amounts to approximately 41.2 billion KRW. Specifically, CEO Park will receive stock options worth 4.2 billion KRW, CTO Lee 1.6 billion KRW, and the 489 employees a total of 36.1 billion KRW.

This is the first time that Naver Financial, an unlisted company, has decided to grant stock options to all its executives and employees. A Naver Financial official explained, "Since the company was established in 2019 and is still in the early stages of growth, this is intended to motivate employees." It is understood that last year, Naver Financial employees showed considerable interest in the possibility of listing and the granting of stock options.

Last month, Naver Financial also decided on a 3-for-1 stock dividend to grant stock options. Since most of Naver Financial's shares are held by Naver (with a 69% stake as of May), the sudden decision for a stock dividend cautiously raised speculation about the possibility of a listing within the industry.

However, an industry insider explained, "The sudden stock dividend attracted attention in the fintech sector regarding its background. But considering market supply and demand conditions, a listing does not seem likely in the near term, and the decision was made to grant stock options to all employees."

Meanwhile, last year, at competitor Kakao Pay, controversy arose when executives exercised a large volume of 440,000 stock options, realizing a capital gain of 90 billion KRW. This was because the burden of exercising stock options fell on ordinary investors. In response, Kakao Pay introduced measures to prevent recurrence, including prohibiting executives from selling shares for one year after listing and the CEO for two years after listing.

Financial authorities also announced on the 12th measures requiring insiders such as executives of listed companies to disclose their trading plans 30 days prior to the scheduled trading date when trading company shares. Naver Financial has not yet established such internal regulations. A Naver Financial official said, "There are no mechanisms yet (to prevent executives from cashing out), but it is not because the company has not considered it, but because the timing of the listing is still unknown." He added, "Since related policies are being discussed by authorities and lawmakers, Naver Financial will ensure that similar controversies do not recur."

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