[Click eStock] "YG Entertainment, No Full BLACKPINK Activities This Year... Target Price Down"

Kiwoom Securities on the 12th downgraded the target price of YG Entertainment from 85,000 KRW to 69,000 KRW, stating that "it reflects the profit decline due to the absence of BLACKPINK's full-group activities this year." The buy rating was maintained.

Namsoo Lee, a researcher at Kiwoom Securities, stated, "Assuming BLACKPINK's full-group comeback will be next year, reflecting their individual activities. Accordingly, operating profit this year is expected to decrease by 37.2% compared to last year, reaching 54.6 billion KRW."

YG Entertainment, the agency of girl group BLACKPINK, announced on the 6th that the choreography video for their hit song "Lovesick Girls" has surpassed 300 million views on YouTube. The photo is a commemorative image celebrating BLACKPINK's "Lovesick Girls" choreography video reaching 300 million views. [Image source=Yonhap News]

Lee said, "From the third quarter of 2022, when BLACKPINK was active as a full group, for five quarters, consolidated sales reached 699.4 billion KRW and operating profit was 117.7 billion KRW. Removing sales of 254.4 billion KRW and operating profit of 26.3 billion KRW (including 6.7 billion KRW from investment division) from YG Plus, a major subsidiary, the artist-related performance is estimated at 445 billion KRW in sales and 91.4 billion KRW in operating profit over five quarters."

He added, "During this period, BLACKPINK is estimated to have achieved sales of about 270 billion KRW through album sales, music streaming and YouTube settlements, world tour tickets (66 concerts in 34 cities attracting 1.8 million attendees), and advertisements. BLACKPINK's contribution to artist division sales is at the 60% level, and considering economies of scale in profit productivity, it is evaluated to be even higher."

Regarding this year's performance, he said, "The first quarter, without physical album releases, is expected to see operating profit of 4.3 billion KRW, down 88.1% year-on-year, reflecting the base effect from BLACKPINK concerts. However, the second quarter is expected to record 19.1 billion KRW, down 33.8% year-on-year, due to BabyMonster's physical album debut, Treasure's comeback, and the deferred results from the first quarter's Japan concerts."

Lee added, "In the second half, the third quarter is expected to see events such as 20 Treasure Japan fan meetings, as well as comebacks of BabyMonster and Treasure albums. We expect to confirm future plans for rookies preparing in Japan and Thailand. The debut of local groups is a factor that alleviates the discount on overseas expansion, which has been lacking compared to competitors."

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