April 26, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] YG Entertainment’s first-quarter earnings will be in line with market consensus, said Mirae Asset Daewoo on April 25, maintaining a “trading buy” recommendation and 32,000 won (US$29.70) target price. 

Its revenue in the period will decline 18.5 percent on-year to 87.1 billion won, and operating profit by 42.9 percent to 8.5 billion won, largely satisfying market expectations, said analyst Park Jeong-yeop.

From Japan, Big Bang’s last dome tour and part of iKON’s tour in the latter half last year will be reflected, said the analyst. In Korea, sales of albums have been slow excluding that of iKON who sold 100,000 albums when it returned in February, but YG maintained high market share in online music, according to Park. 

From the second quarter, earnings will systemically suffer from lack of Big Bang’s performances, but there still are a number of possibilities. These include other artists’ gaining popularity, new content business, shrinking loss from subsidiaries and normalizing activities in China, noted the analyst, advising investors to keep an eye out for the latter half when the potential could be realized. 

By Hwang You-mee (glamazon@heraldcorp.com)