IBK Securities noted on the 23rd that KRAFTON's recently released "ENJOI" has recorded satisfactory performance, raising expectations for upcoming games including the new title "Subnautica 2." Accordingly, it has maintained its investment opinion at "buy" and raised the target price from 450,000 won to 500,000 won, an increase of 11.1%. The previous day's closing price for KRAFTON was 380,000 won.
Lee Seung-hoon, a research analyst at IBK Securities, said, "As the lifecycle of the Battlefield IP extends and considering the future value of the more than 30 studios invested in, the likelihood of corporate value increasing is high," adding, "We are diversifying the game portfolio away from the existing focus on PUBG with the upcoming lineup."
He added, "With the restructuring of the publishing organization and the introduction of the champion system, internal capabilities centered on content selection have been strengthened, establishing a quality-over-quantity pipeline strategy," predicting that they will pursue mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and localization investments in high-growth regions such as India and Western countries to achieve the revenue goal of 7 trillion won announced in February.
KRAFTON recorded consolidated revenues of 874.2 billion won and operating profits of 457.3 billion won in the first quarter of this year. This marks the highest performance ever for a quarter. The researcher explained, "The Korea institutional sector has successfully established its place following the release of new premium content within the PUBG IP games," adding, "ENJOI demonstrated its potential by selling 1 million copies globally within just 7 days of its launch."
He explained that "the mobile institutional sector has seen an increase in paid users due to vehicle skins, IP collaborations, and the release of local content," noting that "especially in the Indian market, the proportion of paid users has expanded, and there were factors leading to increased expenses such as new product development, workforce expansion, and heightened marketing efforts; however, high-margin products' share has increased, restoring high profitability."