FSN Achieves Record-High Results in 2023 with Sales of 272.3 Billion Won and Operating Profit of 30.5 Billion Won

KOSDAQ-listed FSN achieved its highest-ever performance last year.

FSN announced on the 17th that its consolidated sales for the previous year reached 272.3 billion won and operating profit totaled 30.5 billion won. Driven by the rapid growth of the brand and platform business led by its subsidiary Boosters, sales from continuing operations rose by 47% year-over-year and operating profit increased by 175%.

By business segment, growth in the brand and platform segment was particularly notable. Boosters, which leads this business, achieved sales of 199.3 billion won (a 90% increase from the previous year) and operating profit of 33.4 billion won (a 128% increase), once again setting a new record since its founding. Boosters has expanded its brand business by partnering with companies in diverse sectors such as footwear, food and beverages, athleisure, and healthcare platforms. In addition to domestic growth, partner brands also performed well in the Japanese market, driving overall sales growth.

Additionally, Daedamo.com achieved record-high sales, supported by the simultaneous growth of "Daedamo," Korea's largest hair loss community, and "Daedamo Dandy," a men’s cosmetic and beauty platform. Its operating profit margin reached 58%.

FSN’s core marketing business also remained profitable despite challenging advertising market conditions. Offering services such as full-service advertising, performance marketing, digital media, search advertising, and mobile ad networks, the company generated over 70 billion won in sales last year. Most marketing subsidiaries—including Adqua Interactive, Cauly, Next Media Group, and Recobell—remained profitable, particularly thanks to their AI-based marketing capabilities, which also garnered multiple awards.

However, the company posted a net loss of 15.1 billion won due to discontinued business losses amounting to 16.8 billion won, including the separation of Hyper Corporation as a consolidated subsidiary. On a continuing operations basis, however, the company reported a net profit of 1.6 billion won. According to FSN, a significant factor was a 19.6 billion won accounting loss related to derivative valuation, which did not involve actual cash outflow and was driven by the increased valuation of its subsidiaries. Excluding this one-off accounting cost, the company would have recorded a profit of approximately 21.2 billion won. FSN explained that this cost was a one-time accounting factor.

FSN believes that, having completed organizational restructuring and business streamlining, its growth and profitability will be further strengthened from this year onward. Accordingly, the company expects its overall net profit to improve gradually.

This year, the company plans to expand new businesses focused on brand and platform segments, such as K-Beauty and K-medical tourism, while also accelerating its global market strategy. Boosters is preparing to enter the K-Beauty market by establishing a joint venture with a Neospeicul-based skincare brand and is planning to launch new brands. Daedamo, targeting the global K-medical tourism market, introduced a global service and a real-time Line consultation service in Japan last year. Notably, in its key target market of Japan, the number of Japanese users increased by 484% through local influencer marketing. Boosters is also considering acquiring new platforms that can create synergies with Daedamo as it expands its K-Beauty and K-medical tourism businesses.

The company’s financial structure is also expected to improve. With the completion of the separation of Hyper Corporation and the global business division from consolidation, organizational restructuring and business streamlining have been finalized. By integrating companies engaged in similar businesses and separating loss-making subsidiaries from the group, FSN expects to strengthen a profit-focused structure centered on brand, platform, and advertising marketing businesses. In addition, the balance of convertible bonds (CB), which previously exceeded 40 billion won, has now been reduced to around 8.6 billion won, easing the company's financial burden.

Junggyo Seo, CEO of FSN, said, "We have once again achieved record-high results based on the rapid growth of our brand and platform businesses, as well as the stable growth of our marketing business. This year, we expect even greater growth through the expansion of our K-Beauty and K-healthcare platform businesses and our entry into global markets." He added, "With the successful completion of consolidation separations and business restructuring, our financial structure will be further improved. We will accelerate efforts to re-evaluate our corporate value through proactive IR and shareholder return policies."

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