[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] Leading Investment & Securities evaluated on the 31st that Corpus Korea is expected to enter a full-fledged performance growth phase this year due to the Korean drama craze in Japan and the increase in drama production sales.
Corpus Korea was established in July 2005 and went public in December 2020. It mainly operates a distribution business that secures licenses related to content such as dramas and entertainment from domestic broadcasters and production companies, customizes them independently, and supplies them to major media outlets in Japan. Additionally, it started content production last year by acquiring Kim Jong-hak Production, with sales composition of 90.5% distribution, 8.5% production, and 1% others.
With the Korean drama craze in Japan, Corpus Korea, which supplies Korean content intellectual property (IP) to major online video service (OTT) platforms, is expected to benefit. In the first half of this year, the hit work in Korea, "Jaebeoljip Maknae Adeul," will be distributed to local OTT platforms in Japan.
Also, the acquisition of Kim Jong-hak Production, enabling the securing of its own IP, is considered a positive factor. Researcher Yuseongman from Leading Investment & Securities explained, "Through Kim Jong-hak Production, acquired last year at a valuation of about 13 billion KRW, about five drama contents will be produced this year," adding, "If the season 2 of the hit 'Now, We Are Breaking Up' is supplied as a Netflix original next year, significant growth is expected in all aspects of sales and profitability."
He continued, "The pre-co-produced 'Celebrity' and 'Morning Comes to the Psychiatric Ward' will be supplied to Netflix," and "The 'Bad Memory Eraser' (co-produced with Chorokbaem Media) is also under discussion for future supply platforms."
The webtoon and web drama projects, which are new businesses, are also evaluated to be progressing smoothly since starting serialization on Naver Webtoon last year. Supply services to Japanese web novel platforms are also scheduled to begin in the second half of this year.
Due to steady content distribution in Japan, last year's sales are expected to increase by 11.9% year-on-year to 37.9 billion KRW, and operating profit is expected to increase by 9.8% to 11.3 billion KRW. This year, sales are expected to increase by 125.3% to 85.4 billion KRW, and operating profit is expected to increase by 47.8% to 16.7 billion KRW, marking the beginning of a full-fledged performance growth phase. Next year, growth in existing distribution sales in Japan and sales from new businesses such as self-produced drama IP, webtoons, and web novels are also expected to be added.
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