[Featured Stock] Squid Game's 'Hidden Beneficiary' Alois Hits Upper Limit

[Asia Economy Reporter Sohyeon Park] Alois has emerged as a hidden beneficiary of Squid Game, with its stock price hitting the upper limit early in the trading session.

As of 9:14 AM on the 9th, Alois is trading on the KOSDAQ market at 3,625 KRW, up 835 KRW (29.93%) from the previous day.

Alois has a market capitalization of 62.8 billion KRW and ranks 1,254th on the KOSDAQ.

IBK Investment & Securities stated that Alois produces set-top boxes for online video streaming services (OTT), and thus is expected to benefit from the growth of OTT.

Alois is a company specializing in the production of OTT set-top boxes and was listed on the KOSDAQ market in September 2019 through a merger with IBKS SPAC No. 9.

The company's main product is the "Android OTT Box," a device that decodes video content and outputs the video through display devices such as TVs.

Researcher Hwanwook Lee of IBK Investment & Securities explained, "Alois's products offer excellent performance relative to their price and have the advantage of being usable across multiple internet lines."

Currently, 100% of Alois's product sales occur overseas, with general consumers (open market) as the main market. Based on cumulative figures for the third quarter of this year, the sales proportion by major export regions is over half in Europe at 52.2%, followed by North America (30.7%), the Middle East (5.9%), South America (3.2%), and other countries including Asia (7.9%). In the third quarter, Alois recorded sales of 8.3 billion KRW, an 81.3% increase compared to the same period last year, and operating profit of 1.5 billion KRW, a 160.5% increase.

Researcher Lee evaluated, "Along with high sales growth in advanced markets such as Europe and North America, the expansion of new sales channels in the Asian region contributed to the company's growth." He added, "Due to the operating leverage effect from the growth in scale, the operating profit margin for the cumulative third quarter also increased by 4.3 percentage points year-on-year to 20.2%."

This year, Alois is expected to achieve its highest annual performance due to the growth of the OTT market. Researcher Lee said, "As of the cumulative third quarter, the company has already achieved its best-ever performance, and demand is expected to strengthen in the fourth quarter due to the winter holiday season and sports events in major export countries," adding, "Product competitiveness will continue to improve through quality enhancement going forward."