[Click eStock] "Inka Geumyung Service, Improving Supply and Demand with Treasury Stock Buyback... Target Price Up"

Shinhan Investment Corp. raised the target price for Inka Financial Services from 18,000 KRW to 19,000 KRW on the 13th.

Inka Financial Services announced on the 11th that it plans to repurchase treasury shares worth 7 billion KRW, which corresponds to 4.4% of its market capitalization. The repurchase will take place from the 15th of this month until March 15th of next year.

Shinhan Investment Corp. expects the share repurchase to improve supply and demand. Assuming a consistent daily acquisition of treasury shares during the period (121 business days), the average daily trading value is estimated at 800 million KRW, and the average daily trading volume at 62,000 shares. This represents 7.3% of the average trading value and 6.2% of the average trading volume over the same number of previous business days. Considering the shares held by major shareholders and related parties, it is estimated that 11.1% of the circulating shares will effectively be treasury shares repurchased.

Heeyeon Lim, Senior Researcher at Shinhan Investment Corp., stated, "Considering the expected net profit of 29.6 billion KRW this year, this treasury share repurchase corresponds to a 23.7% shareholder return." She added, "This is significantly more impactful compared to last year's dividend payout ratio of 10%, and is regarded as an encouraging shareholder return policy." She further commented, "As the industry is actively investing in recruiting financial planners, the announcement of a large-scale shareholder return suggests that the company is likely to reduce excessive recruiting expenses." She continued, "In fact, the company is known to be actively participating in the GA financial planner recruiting voluntary agreement scheduled for the 20th, which supports expectations of improved performance from cost reductions starting in the fourth quarter."