Korea/Asia, Events, IPOs, Douglas Research Advisory

Douglas Kim

Nearly 25 years of experience in analyzing hundreds of companies, especially in Asia. Deep expertise in the following sectors:
- Technology (E-commerce, SaaS, Internet)
- Consumer 
- Special Situations/Deep Value Plays
- Holdcos/Stubs
- Asian Unicorns/Private Companies

Korea/Asia, Events, IPOs

End of Lock-Ups for Kakao Bank, Krafton, SK IET, & HHI in 4Q 2021 and Increasing Short Volumes

Kakao Bank - Announces a Block Deal Sale of 514 Billion Won

Kakao Bank - A Major Block Deal Is a Big Negative Overhang

Toss Bank: A Sharp Growth in New Applicants to Take Away Market Share from Kakao Bank & K-Bank

KakaoBank - End of the 1 Month Lock Up Period & More Block Selling Ahead Likely by Major Investors

The Blockchain Delusion. A (Mostly) Bearish Investment Thesis.

Gravity Works As WeWork Doesn't; Now Plan B

Equity Bottom-Up

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<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/kakaobank-corp" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:33501:1" rel="noopener">KakaoBank (323410 KS)</a>'s stock price declined by 4.2% today to 65,500 won, driven lower by<a href="https://finance.naver.com/item/main.naver?code=323410" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> news</a> about a sharp increase in voice phishing and higher fraudulent accounts. From the launch of the Internet banks in 2017 to 2020, the number of <a href="https://www.edaily.co.kr/news/read?newsId=02309126629208656&amp;mediaCodeNo=257&amp;OutLnkChk=Y" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fraudulent accounts</a> at Internet banks (Kakao Bank and K-Bank) increased significantly while the number of fraudulent accounts at the existing commercial banks declined in this period. </p>
<p><strong>The number of suspended fraudulent accounts at Kakao Bank increased from 199 in 2017 to 2,705 in 2020, up more than 13x. </strong>This figure was 2,025 in 1H 2021, which was 75% of the entire fraudulent accounts in 2020. </p>
</div><p>While Toss Bank is aggressively trying to gain new customers with its attractive loans and deposit rates, <a href="https://www.yonhapnewstv.co.kr/news/MYH20211001016500641?did=1825m" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kakao Bank</a> announced that it will temporarily suspend negative loans from 1 October to 31 December 2021. The suspension of the negative loans is part of Kakao Bank's efforts to better control the growth rate of household loans.</p>


KakaoBank (323410 KS)'s stock price declined by 4.2% today to 65,500 won, driven lower by news about a sharp increase in voice phishing and higher fraudulent accounts. From the launch of the Internet banks in 2017 to 2020, the number of fraudulent accounts at Internet banks (Kakao Bank and K-Bank) increased significantly while the number of fraudulent accounts at the existing commercial banks declined in this period. 
The number of suspended fraudulent accounts at Kakao Bank increased from 199 in 2017 to 2,705 in 2020, up more than 13x. This figure was 2,025 in 1H 2021, which was 75% of the entire fraudulent accounts in 2020. 
While Toss Bank is aggressively trying to gain new customers with its attractive loans and deposit rates, Kakao Bank announced that it will temporarily suspend negative loans from 1 October to 31 December 2021. The suspension of the negative loans is part of Kakao Bank's efforts to better control the growth rate of household loans.

Kakao Bank - A Sharp Increase in Fraudulent Accounts