In today’s briefing:
- End of Mandatory Lock-Up Periods for 53 Companies in Korea in February 2024
- Samsung Memory Revenues Up Impressively
- KRX New Deal Index Rebalance Preview: Douzone Bizon Does It Again
- Samsung C&T: Share Cancellation of Nearly 1.1 Trillion Won Worth of Treasury Shares in 2023
- Korean Air – 4Q Loss Driven by Exceptional Financial Costs; Underlying Picture Healthier
End of Mandatory Lock-Up Periods for 53 Companies in Korea in February 2024
- We discuss the end of the mandatory lock-up periods for 53 stocks in Korea in February 2024, among which 3 are in KOSPI and 50 are in KOSDAQ.
- These 53 stocks on average could be subject to further selling pressures in February and could underperform relative to the market.
- The top five market cap stocks including those with 1% or higher A/B ratio include the following: Sam A Aluminum, Jeio, HLB Therapeutics, Polaris Office, and Mirae Asset Venture Investment.
Samsung Memory Revenues Up Impressively
- Samsung’s earnings was recently reported, with memory revenues up nearly 50% in the fourth quarter
- This gain has been driven by very strong growth in AI and a normalization of inventory levels
- The memory business is approaching positive margins once again, and SK hynix is already profitable
KRX New Deal Index Rebalance Preview: Douzone Bizon Does It Again
- The review period for the March rebalance ended yesterday, the changes will be announced early March and implemented at the close of trading on 14 March.
- We forecast one change for each of the Secondary Battery, Bio, Internet and Game indices. There could be two changes for the BBIG Index.
- Douzone Bizon (012510 KS) is up 65.5% in the last month and we’d look to lighten positions on this move higher.
Samsung C&T: Share Cancellation of Nearly 1.1 Trillion Won Worth of Treasury Shares in 2023
- Samsung C&T announced that it plans to cancel treasury shares including 7,807,563 shares of common stock (4.2% of outstanding shares) and 159,835 shares of preferred stock (9.8% of outstanding shares).
- This would represent share cancellation amount of 1.1 trillion won and 17 billion won for Samsung C&T (028260 KS) (common) and Samsung C&T (02826K KS) (preferred).
- For the remaining treasury shares, the company will cancel 7.8 million shares in 2025 and 7.8 million shares in 2026.
Korean Air – 4Q Loss Driven by Exceptional Financial Costs; Underlying Picture Healthier
- Korean Air has reported a 4Q23 net loss of KRW235bn, which is down from a profit of KRW354bn in 4Q22. We had expected KRW264bn profit but higher opex/financing costs weighed
- We highlight 4Q23 saw KRW409bn in other financial expenses, which compared to an income of KRW322bn in 9M23. Without this, KAL would have generated profit of around KRW200bn in 4Q23
- Pre-Pandemic, 4Q saw a near-breakeven performance (KRW17-38bn losses in 4Q18-4Q19) so a KRW184bn profit in 4Q23 still remains strong relative to pre-pandemic levels