Korea/Asia, Events, IPOs, Douglas Research Advisory

Douglas Kim

Nearly 30 years of experience in the Korean/Asian equity research. Major sectors coverage include the following:
- Technology 
- Consumer 
- Special Situations/Deep Value Plays
- Tender Offers/M&As
- Holdcos/Stubs
- Asian Unicorns/Private Companies

Korea/Asia, Events, IPOs

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Equity Bottom-Up

<p><strong>In this insight, we provide an NAV valuation sensitivity analysis of SK Chemicals. SK Chemicals has an 68.4% stake in <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/sk-bioscience-co-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:31484:1" rel="noopener">SK Bioscience (302440 KS)</a> which is worth 17.6 trillion won versus SK Chemicals' current market cap of 3.4 trillion won. </strong></p><ul>
<li>In Case A, we used the current market value of SK Bioscience. In the NAV analysis Case A, it suggests a target price of 766,134 won, which is 168% higher than current price.</li>
<li>In Case B, we used the average of the high/low value of SK Bioscience's share price in the past five months. In the NAV analysis Case B, it suggests a target price of 546,265 won, which is 91% higher than the current price.</li>
<li>In Case C, we used the low price of SK Bioscience in the past five months. In the NAV analysis Case C, it suggests a target price of 267,389 won, which is 6.5% lower than the current price.</li>
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<p>Clearly, SK Chemicals is trading at a steep discount to its NAV. Part of this reason may be because the market may not be fully willing to reflect SK Bioscience's current market value on its controlling stake. Since its IPO in March 2021, SK Bioscience has been a huge winner and it has also vastly outperformed against SK Chemicals.</p>
<p>However, there appears to be too much valuation gap between these two companies and in the coming months, we believe that there is a higher probability of SK Chemicals outperforming versus SK Bioscience, especially as the value investors try to pick up on SK Chemicals whose market cap is only 19% of its stake in SK Bioscience. </p>
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In this insight, we provide an NAV valuation sensitivity analysis of SK Chemicals. SK Chemicals has an 68.4% stake in SK Bioscience (302440 KS) which is worth 17.6 trillion won versus SK Chemicals' current market cap of 3.4 trillion won. 
In Case A, we used the current market value of SK Bioscience. In the NAV analysis Case A, it suggests a target price of 766,134 won, which is 168% higher than current price.
In Case B, we used the average of the high/low value of SK Bioscience's share price in the past five months. In the NAV analysis Case B, it suggests a target price of 546,265 won, which is 91% higher than the current price.
In Case C, we used the low price of SK Bioscience in the past five months. In the NAV analysis Case C, it suggests a target price of 267,389 won, which is 6.5% lower than the current price.

Clearly, SK Chemicals is trading at a steep discount to its NAV. Part of this reason may be because the market may not be fully willing to reflect SK Bioscience's current market value on its controlling stake. Since its IPO in March 2021, SK Bioscience has been a huge winner and it has also vastly outperformed against SK Chemicals.
However, there appears to be too much valuation gap between these two companies and in the coming months, we believe that there is a higher probability of SK Chemicals outperforming versus SK Bioscience, especially as the value investors try to pick up on SK Chemicals whose market cap is only 19% of its stake in SK Bioscience. 


SK Chemicals - Its Market Cap Is Only 19% of Its Stake in SK Bioscience