Heungkuk Securities noted on the 19th that the shareholder return will expand due to the solid performance of its subsidiary, SK hynix, and the reduction of losses in other subsidiaries. The company expects that the stock repurchase and cancellation program, which began last year as part of a corporate value enhancement plan, will continue into the second half of this year. The target stock price for SK Square is 120,000 won, and the investment opinion remains 'buy.'
The revenue of SK Square for the first quarter of this year was 402.8 billion won, and operating profit was 1.6523 trillion won, marking the largest performance in history. These figures represent a decrease of 19.2% and an increase of 410.3%, respectively, compared to the previous year.
The solid performance is primarily attributed to the key subsidiary, SK hynix. Despite the slowdown in the semiconductor market in the first quarter, SK hynix achieved strong performance through high-bandwidth memory (HBM) sales. In the second quarter, operating profit is expected to reach 8.5 trillion won, with a total of 24.9 trillion won expected for the year. In addition, the monthly active user (MAU) growth of T map Mobility has continued, leading to a quarterly operating loss of 9.4 billion won as the performance of subsidiaries also improved.
Following the performance improvement, the shareholder return policy is also being actively pursued. Heungkuk Securities researcher Hwang Seong-jin said, "The essence of the corporate value enhancement plan announced by SK Square last November is to maintain a net asset value (NAV) discount rate of less than 50% by 2027 and a price-to-book ratio (PBR) of more than 1.0." He added, "This year, they purchased and canceled 100 billion won worth of their own shares, and currently, additional purchases of 100 billion won worth of new shares are ongoing."
He added, "In the second half, it is expected that additional acquisitions of treasury shares will be conducted in relation to the remaining amount from the sale of SK shieldus."