[Click eStock] "NICE Pyeongga Information to Record Another Best Performance in 2Q This Year"

2Q Sales of 117.7 Billion KRW, Operating Profit of 18.4 Billion KRW Expected... Annual Increase Since 2011
Expansion of Core CB Business Anticipated Due to Data 3 Act Implementation

[Asia Economy Reporter Minwoo Lee] NICE Information Service is expected to achieve record-breaking performance in the second quarter of this year. With the implementation of the so-called 'Data 3 Act (Personal Information Protection Act, Information and Communications Network Act, Credit Information Act)' starting next month and the national support for the data industry, the demand for the credit information (CB) business is expected to continuously expand.

On the 16th, Ebest Investment & Securities forecasted that NICE Information Service will record sales of 117.7 billion KRW and operating profit of 18.4 billion KRW in the second quarter of this year. This represents an increase of 8.1% and 10.3%, respectively, compared to the same period last year. Since 2011, the company has maintained an average annual growth rate of 12.2% in sales and 14.1% in operating profit, showing steady growth without any decline.

Jung Hongsik, a researcher at Ebest Investment & Securities, explained, "NICE Information Service performs a lot of work from April to June, after the business reports of companies with December fiscal year-end are released, when conducting evaluations for partner companies and the Public Procurement Service in the corporate information sector. Therefore, it records the highest quarterly performance every second quarter." He added, "As the company has consistently maintained growth every year, it is expected to achieve the highest performance ever in the second quarter of this year as well."

The outlook is also bright. Mid- to long-term growth is expected in the CB business. Researcher Jung said, "The CB business is highly related to recently spotlighted issues such as big data, the Data 3 Act, and fintech (finance + technology). Since the company operates the CB business, the utilization of credit data analysis and evaluation tasks built through this will increase." He added, "From a short-term perspective, performance changes may be minimal, but the business areas that can be operated in the future will gradually expand."

Against this background, Ebest Investment & Securities maintained a 'Buy' rating on NICE Information Service and raised the target price by 20% from 20,000 KRW to 24,000 KRW. The closing price on the previous day was 20,400 KRW.