Following the hacking incident at SK Telecom, subscriber churn continues, and institutional investors have also engaged in massive selling, leading to a drop in stock prices. Analysts noted that it is necessary to monitor whether the prolonged exposure to the risk of SIM card hacking affects SK Telecom's subscriber base.
According to the Korea Exchange, SK Telecom's stock price, which closed at 58,000 won on the day before the hacking incident was announced on the 21st of last month, plummeted to 54,300 won on the 30th. The return during this period was -6.38%.
In particular, the company's stock price dropped by 6.75% on April 28, the day the free replacement of SIM cards for all subscribers began. The fact that there was a shortage of SIM card inventory became known, leading concerned investors to offload their shares.
Institutional investors sold off heavily. Excluding Hanwha Ocean, which had a block deal (mass trading outside of regular hours) through the Korea Development Bank, SK Telecom was the most actively sold stock by institutions from the 22nd to the 30th of last month. The net selling volume amounted to 119.1 billion won. Institutions showed a selling bias for SK Telecom on six out of seven trading days.
Even foreign investors who had been purchasing SK Telecom stocks turned to net selling for two consecutive trading days on the 28th and 29th of last month.
Industry sources indicate that SK Telecom has a SIM card inventory of 1 million units, and the inventory available by the end of May will only be 5 million units. The number of SK Telecom subscribers is 23 million. Ryu Young-sang, president of SK Telecom, stated at a parliamentary hearing held the previous day in Yeouido, Seoul, that the SIM card replacement process will take at least three months.
Ko Hak-soo, chairman of the Personal Information Protection Commission, stated that the forensic results related to this incident could take as little as 2 to 3 months, or as long as over a year.
As a result, the pace of SK Telecom's subscriber churn is accelerating. On the 28th and 29th of last month, SK Telecom lost 25,000 and 36,000 subscribers, respectively. Before the incident, the average daily subscriber loss was about 2,000.
As a result of this incident, SK Telecom faces inevitable financial losses. Assuming a cost of about 4,000 won per SIM card for the replacement of all 23 million subscribers, the cost alone amounts to 90 billion won. Additionally, there is a possibility that authorities could impose penalty surcharges worth hundreds of millions of won on SK Telecom. The emergence of collective lawsuits from victims is also a variable.
Experts are paying attention to how quickly SK Telecom can resolve this situation. Kim Jun-seop, a researcher at KB Securities, noted, "The potential for changes in market share among telecommunications companies is being raised depending on future response directions," and added, "Whether SK Telecom responds to the number portability subscriber market will affect future wireless revenue."