Hana Securities said on the 17th that Doosan is expected to continue earnings growth on the back of expanding demand for materials for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. It maintained a "Buy" investment rating and raised its target price to 1.67 million won from 1.33 million won. Doosan's closing price in the previous trading day was 1,088,000 won.
Kim Min-gyeong, an analyst at Hana Securities, said, "In the first quarter, mass-production sample supply began for next-generation AI accelerator models, and the company's exclusive position within the compute tray of this year's next-generation AI accelerator models will continue."
In particular, it said Doosan is expected to benefit from the adoption of the next-generation AI server platform "Rubin." Kim said, "On Rubin, as the high-speed serializer/deserializer (SerDes) transmission speed increases, material upgrades for copper foil and glass fiber are required to reduce signal loss," adding, "Accordingly, an increase in average selling price (ASP) is expected."
Hana Securities forecast Doosan's electronics BG revenue this year at 2.1455 trillion won and operating profit at 598.9 billion won. That would be up 14% and 28%, respectively, from a year earlier.
Capacity expansions to meet growing demand are also underway. Kim said, "In the mid to long term, capacity is being expanded to respond to increasing demand for copper-clad laminate (CCL) for network equipment," adding, "Capacity additions at Japan's Nittobo, cited as a bottleneck factor, are proceeding in parallel, making it possible to secure new customers or increase share at existing customers going forward."
Hana Securities estimated the current production capacity of the electronics BG, based on network boards, at about 1.1 trillion won. If capacity is expanded by about 25% each in the fourth quarter of this year and the first half of next year compared with the existing level, production capacity is expected to expand to about 1.6 trillion–1.7 trillion won by the end of 2027. It also said additional capacity expansions to meet 2028 demand are expected to be finalized within the second quarter of this year.
Meanwhile, Doosan's ongoing acquisition of SK Siltron was cited as a future earnings variable. Kim said, "Due diligence related to the Siltron acquisition is in the final stage, and the acquisition process is expected to be completed within the year," adding, "If subsequent procedures such as merger review are completed from late in the first half to early in the second half, the deal could start contributing to earnings as early as the second half of this year."