A British investment firm has become the second-largest shareholder in the domestic cybersecurity company, Fasoo, drawing interest in the background of the move. Fasoo was founded in 2000 by CEO Kyu-gon Cho, a former member of Samsung SDS's internal venture. The company specializes in document encryption and data security. Recently, it has been gaining attention by investing in artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
◇ British investment trust company has shown interest in PhaSu for years
According to the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system on the 11th, Fasoo announced on the 6th that Herald Investment Trust had become the second-largest shareholder with a 5.06% equity stake. Herald Investment surpassed the 5% equity level by purchasing an additional 33,269 shares of PhaSu on the 27th and 28th of last month.
Herald Investment is a large investment trust company based in the United Kingdom. The firm primarily invests in small to mid-sized companies in the technology, telecommunications, and media sectors. Established in 1994, it is listed on the London Stock Exchange. In its recent semiannual report, Herald Investment noted that it is investing in companies that actively utilize AI technology.
Industry experts believe that Herald Investment acquired shares in Fasoo with long-term investment intentions as the company expands its AI business. A Fasoo representative said, 'Herald Investment has been a consistently communicating investor for the past 2 to 3 years' and added, 'In the past, they visited our company in Korea.'
Fasoo is actively pursuing AI initiatives among domestic cybersecurity firms. This year, PhaSu changed its corporate vision from 'making IT easy and simple' to 'making AI easy and simple.' CEO Cho set a goal to become a specialized company in AI transformation (AX) beyond digital transformation (DX). To achieve this, PhaSu launched the enterprise-level large language model (LLM) named 'PhaSu Enterprise LLM (ELLM)' in March.
Fasoo is also increasing its investment in research and development, allocating 22.48% (approximately 6.5 billion won) of its total revenue to R&D expenses in the third quarter.
◇ This year, share price has plummeted... PhaSu 'no concerns about equity disputes with external investors'
Fasoo's stock price has continued to decline this year. As of the 10th, Fasoo's stock price was 464 billion won, with a market capitalization of around 54.2 billion won. The stock price, which reached 100,100 won in early January, has now halved. An industry insider said, 'Domestic cybersecurity companies are undervalued, but individual corporations also need to focus on proving their growth potential.'
Concerns have been raised about the risk of hostile takeovers (M&A) due to the low equity stakes of PhaSu's largest shareholders and related parties. As of the third quarter, the largest shareholder of Fasoo is CEO Kyu-gon Cho, who holds a 19.28% equity stake in the company. The chief financial officer, Lee Ji-soo, a founding member alongside Cho, holds 2.29%. The total equity stake of Cho's family and related parties amounts to 21.96%.
Fasoo stated, 'Currently, there are no concerns about equity disputes with external investment companies.'