[Click eStock] "Com2uS, Limited Additional Stock Price Drop Risk... Target Price Maintained"

On the 20th, Samsung Securities maintained a buy rating and a target price of 52,000 KRW for Com2uS, stating, "Although the risk related to Wysiwyg Studios (which has continued to incur losses) remains, a rigorous restructuring is underway. As new releases will be sequentially launched starting from the second quarter of this year, the company's overall performance is expected to gradually improve."

On the same day, Samsung Securities analyst Oh Dong-hwan said, "Further verification is needed regarding the hit potential of new releases and the normalization of the media division (Wysiwyg Studios). Considering the asset value of approximately 600 billion KRW, the risk of further stock price decline is judged to be limited. However, since the upside potential is limited at this point, I recommend buying on stock price corrections."

In the fourth quarter of last year, Com2uS recorded an operating loss of 17.6 billion KRW, falling short of market expectations. This was due to a 10% decrease in sales of Summoners War, which was approaching its 10th anniversary event, resulting in a separate operating profit of 2.9 billion KRW in the gaming division, while the media division's operating loss increased to around 20 billion KRW. Among the media division's expenses, about 6 billion KRW were one-time factors such as bad debt write-offs of advance contract payments, but due to the nature of the industry, these are highly likely to recur.

To improve profitability, Com2uS has conducted restructuring by reducing 50 to 100 headquarters development personnel. Restructuring is also being carried out mainly within subsidiaries of Wysiwyg Studios. Analyst Oh stated, "Since Wysiwyg Studios rapidly expanded its scale through successive mergers and acquisitions (M&A), it now needs to reorganize its structure focusing on healthier businesses. Whether Wysiwyg Studios normalizes this year will likely determine whether Com2uS as a whole turns profitable."

Starting from the second quarter of this year, three new titles?Starseed, BTS Cooking On, and Frostpunk?are scheduled to be released sequentially. While previous new releases often showed poor performance, these new titles have the potential to surpass the existing hit rates developed externally. The second quarter also includes the Summoners War 10th anniversary promotion, and if Starseed performs well, the separate operating results are expected to improve significantly.