"Genie Music, Core Business Stagnation... Long-Term Vision Is Clear"

[Asia Economy Reporter Park So-yeon] Shinhan Financial Investment has lowered the target price of Genie Music to 5,600 KRW while maintaining a buy rating.

According to FN Guide on the 25th, Shinhan Financial Investment recently released a report on Genie Music stating, "Although the core business is stagnant, it is not greatly concerning," and evaluated that "it has a strong captive (internal market among affiliates) base and a clear identity."

Ji In-hae, Senior Researcher at Shinhan Financial Investment, mentioned, "Genie Music has a clearer long-term vision than any other operator based on a strong captive base."

Genie Music's major shareholders include KT Studio Genie (36%), CJ ENM (15%), and LG Uplus (13%). Researcher Ji explained, "A clear commonality among the major shareholders is that they are companies actively investing in content." CJ ENM invested 100 billion KRW in Studio Genie. Subsequently, the merger of TVING and Season was decided. Researcher Ji analyzed, "This means that within the 'KT Digico' strategy, which involves securing original intellectual property (IP), planning and producing content investment, and platform distribution, KT Studio Genie, which is central to this strategy, and its subsidiary Genie Music will continue to play an increasingly important role."

He evaluated, "It is already impacting performance," adding, "Unlike the stagnation in platform services, music distribution performance remains solid." From the fourth quarter of last year, the performance of Millie's Library was reflected, generating approximately 10 billion KRW in quarterly sales. From the third quarter of this year, the performance business will be newly added. Genie Music is expected to take overall charge of the performance business, which had been dispersed within the KT Group in terms of role and position.