[Featured Stock] Hancom, National Representative's Direct Challenge to Global AI Editors... Target Price 24,000 KRW

Hancom is showing strength. The news that it will spin off its existing web office business division and establish a provisional company called 'Hancom AI Web Editor' seems to be influencing its stock price. In addition to the spin-off, the company will also carry out a temporary cancellation of treasury shares to enhance corporate and shareholder value. The treasury shares scheduled for cancellation amount to 1,429,490 shares, which is 5.6% of the total issued shares, valued at approximately 20 billion KRW.

As of 9:25 AM on the 18th, Hancom is trading at 15,070 KRW, up 13.99% from the previous day.

Hancom will complete the establishment on October 1 after approval at the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders scheduled for the 25th of next month. Hancom holds references from supplying to Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Russian portal company Mail.ru. Based on verified technology and experience, it plans to advance and diversify AI-based web editor products tailored to global market needs.

Hancom will reallocate personnel and resources, which have focused on the domestic market and on-premise products, to the newly established subsidiary to aggressively target overseas markets and cloud-based services. More than 80% of the new subsidiary’s workforce will consist of web editor development experts. By linking generative AI, it aims to provide optimal documents through cognitive search from various data held by users, launching a competitive AI web editor business suited for the global cloud environment. Additionally, it plans to actively seek external investment to secure aggressive mid- to long-term growth funds.

Kim Doo-young, the prospective co-CEO of the new corporation, stated, "The new corporation will prioritize overseas markets and actively pursue global expansion of the AI web editor business to quickly realize business growth." Hancom CEO Kim Yeon-soo said, "We will continue to restructure our business portfolio, focus on corporate growth, and implement proactive shareholder-friendly policies such as treasury stock purchases and cancellations."

Researcher Park Jong-sun of Eugene Investment & Securities analyzed, "Through the spin-off, the company will prioritize overseas product development and effectively nurture the business," adding, "It plans to efficiently decide and execute investments in AI web editor groups from domestic and overseas operators."

He continued, "Based on verified technology and experience, the company will pursue overseas market entry as its top strategy and advance and diversify web-based web editor products to broadly target various markets," and further emphasized, "It plans to foster the AI web editor business applying generative AI and will actively promote the overseas expansion of Hancom AI Web Editor, an AI-based web editor product."

Based on this year’s expected performance, the price-to-earnings ratio (PER) is 8.5 times, showing valuation attractiveness compared to the domestic peer average PER of 15.7 times, according to researcher Park. He estimated sales of 270.4 billion KRW and operating profit of 44.4 billion KRW this year, representing increases of 11.7% and 77.4% respectively compared to the previous year. The target stock price was maintained at 24,000 KRW.

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