[Into the Stock] Fingerstory, Webtoon Value Grows and Stock Price Soars

Record High After SPAC Merger Listing on the 8th of Last Month
Maple Investment Partners Fully Divests... Overhang Concerns Eased

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyungsoo] Fingerstory, which entered the KOSDAQ market through a merger with a SPAC, saw its stock price surge. This is the result of growing interest in the KOSDAQ newcomer Fingerstory as various content productions continue based on webtoon intellectual property (IP).

According to the Korea Exchange, on the 16th, Fingerstory's stock price closed at 11,750 KRW, up 29.98% from the previous trading day. This marked a new high since its listing on the 8th of last month.

Founded in 2018, Fingerstory is a webtoon service platform company. It operates 'Mutoon,' an online webtoon platform specializing in martial arts and action genres, and 'Qtoon,' a romance webtoon service platform. It generates revenue by providing webtoons, comics, and web novels to consumers. It maximizes profits by producing IP works and distributing them to major webtoon platforms such as Kakao Page, Naver Series, and Mr. Blue.

Fingerstory was listed on the KOSDAQ market through a merger with Yuanta No.7 SPAC. At the time of the merger, Fingerstory's per-share value was estimated at 3,976 KRW. The merger ratio was 1 to 0.503. Yuanta No.7 SPAC shareholders received 0.503 shares of Fingerstory stock for each common share they held.

The new shares from the merger recorded 6,050 KRW on the first trading day, the 8th of last month. Following this, the stock price surged, reaching 11,550 KRW just six trading days after listing. This was a 190% increase compared to the stock value at the time of the merger. Afterwards, selling pressure for profit-taking caused the stock price to retreat. Maple Investment Partners disclosed that it sold all of its 5.03% stake (665,0004 shares) on the market between the 9th and 13th. As concerns over overhang (potential large-scale sell-off) eased, the stock price resumed an upward trajectory.

Fingerstory recorded cumulative operating revenue of 8.3 billion KRW and operating profit of 800 million KRW in the first half of last year. It benefited from the expansion of the webtoon market amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Operating revenue has been rapidly increasing since 2019, rising from 8.1 billion KRW in 2019 to 13.1 billion KRW in 2020 and 16.3 billion KRW in 2021.

Recently, as competition among online video service (OTT) providers intensifies, the value of popular webtoon IPs has skyrocketed. Lee Sangheon, a researcher at Hi Investment & Securities, explained, "As OTT platforms such as Netflix, Disney+, and Apple TV continue to expand into overseas markets, the media conversion of webtoons is actively taking place," adding, "This is because they have discovered the potential for success when producing video content based on webtoon originals." He continued, "Webtoons have secured competitiveness by dealing with freer storytelling worlds compared to traditional dramas or movies," and "They are guaranteed to be high-quality content already verified by webtoon readers, reducing the risk of failure."

Fingerstory plans to invest in acquiring IP using the funds secured through the SPAC merger. They aim to increase added value through distribution, secondary derivative production, and overseas expansion based on the acquired IP.