[Click e Stocks] "KakaoBank Enters High-Growth Track Centered on Loans... Target Price 33,000 Won"

NH Investment & Securities on the 19th initiated coverage on KakaoBank with a 'Buy' rating and a target price of 33,000 KRW, forecasting that it will enter a high-growth trajectory this year, mainly driven by mortgage loans.

Jung Joon-seop, a researcher at NH Investment & Securities, explained, "Starting this year, mortgage loans are expected to record high growth, gradually justifying the valuation as a growth stock, which is why we recommend a Buy rating."

NH Investment & Securities projected that KakaoBank's mortgage loans will increase from 1.2 trillion KRW last year to 8 trillion KRW this year and 12.2 trillion KRW next year. Researcher Jung analyzed, "With the influx of new customers aged 40 and above, a high proportion of low-cost deposits (57.4%) is secured, leading to lower loan interest rates compared to other banks. About 60% of mortgage loans are refinancing loans, so the impact of the government's strengthened loan regulations is limited."

High loan growth is expected to continue in the future. Researcher Jung stated, "From the end of this year, benefits are expected from the expansion of refinancing loan platforms to monthly rent and mortgage loans, and KakaoBank plans to enter the auto-secured loan market as well. Capital capacity is overwhelming, so there are no capital constraints due to loan growth."

While the financial platform shows strong performance, there are also areas for improvement. Researcher Jung said, "KakaoBank's application monthly active users (MAU) rank first among domestic banks, but compared to the representative financial app Toss, it is inferior both quantitatively (number of users) and qualitatively (average usage time per user). Efforts to increase traffic are required, and KakaoBank's planned entry into the credit card business will be a good alternative."

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