Norang Poongseon Escapes Management Stock Status... "Expecting Profit Turnaround in Q1"

Last Year Separate Basis Sales of 21 Billion
Resolution of Listing Rule 'Sales Under 3 Billion' Issue
Employee Stock Options and Bonuses Proposed at General Meeting

Norangpungseon has announced that it will exit the KOSDAQ management item list due to improved performance following the resumption of overseas travel, and is forecasting a return to profitability in the first quarter of this year.

Norangpungseon Office Building
Photo by Norangpungseon

According to the travel industry on the 15th, Norangpungseon disclosed through a filing of its audit report submitted the day before that its separate basis sales last year reached 21 billion KRW, resolving the 'sales below 3 billion KRW' factor under KOSDAQ listing regulations, and thus it was removed from the management item list. This comes one year after being designated as a management item in March last year.

Previously, Norangpungseon’s separate basis sales in 2021 were 2.5 billion KRW, falling short of the 3 billion KRW threshold, but sales increased by 737.2% within a year. The company explained that it has been striving for normalization of the travel market and sales growth by reinstating all employees last year, reorganizing its product lineup, and diversifying sales channels.

Additionally, aiming for performance improvement, in April last year, the company established the Online Business Division and IT Division, and expanded and reorganized the marketing department by adding a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) team alongside the existing marketing and CS support teams to strengthen personalized customer services.

Through the Online Business Division’s strategies to expand new customer inflow and diversify sales channels over the past year, digital competitiveness was enhanced, achieving approximately 900,000 monthly active users (MAU) by the end of last year, and sales in the second half of the year increased by over 700% compared to the first half on its own channels such as the internet and direct sales.

With the recovery trend in the travel industry, Norangpungseon expects to exceed its operating targets in the first quarter of this year. In fact, in January alone, the package product booking rate and airline ticket issuance volume increased by 3700% and 1300%, respectively, compared to the same period last year. Considering the customer dispatch status and reservation rates from the end of last year through the Lunar New Year holiday in January and February, the company anticipates that profit recovery will accelerate starting from the first quarter of this year.

At the shareholders’ meeting scheduled for the 22nd, the agenda includes approval for employee stock options (stock options), performance bonuses, and reduction of capital reserves to enhance shareholder value. The plan is to reduce capital reserves and increase retained earnings to boost distributable profits, and after finalizing financial statements through the shareholders’ meeting, to concretize shareholder returns through methods such as share buybacks and dividend payments.

A Norangpungseon official stated, "With the removal from the management item list, we will further restore corporate credibility and image, and discuss various ways to ensure that all shareholders benefit through enhancing shareholder value," adding, "We expect a turnaround in the first quarter through increased sales and cost reductions."