Surpassing 5 Trillion KRW in Sales in 2022, Operating Profit of 464 Billion KRW Recorded
Growth in Cloud and Smart Factory Sectors
Major Shareholder LG Corp. with 49.95%, Second Largest Shareholder Macquarie
LG CNS, the IT service subsidiary of LG Group, has officially begun preparations for its IPO. With a corporate valuation estimated at a minimum of 5 trillion KRW, it is expected to emerge as the top IPO candidate in the first half of next year.
According to the securities industry on the 4th, LG CNS has filed a preliminary review application for listing on the Korea Exchange. The Korea Exchange follows the principle of notifying the review results within 45 business days after receiving the preliminary review application. It is expected that the listing will be completed within the first quarter of next year after approval of the review.
KB Securities, Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley are the lead underwriters, while Mirae Asset Securities, Daishin Securities, Shinhan Investment Corp., and JP Morgan serve as joint underwriters.
Since its establishment in 1987, LG CNS has grown with core businesses such as cloud computing, smart factories, and financial digital transformation (DX). Last year, LG CNS recorded sales of 5.6053 trillion KRW, operating profit of 464 billion KRW, and net profit of 332.4 billion KRW. Applying the price-to-earnings ratio (PER) of approximately 17 times, which is that of Samsung SDS, an IT service company affiliated with Samsung Group, LG CNS’s corporate value exceeds 5 trillion KRW. Currently, LG CNS’s off-market market capitalization is known to exceed 8.5 trillion KRW.
In the first half of this year, LG CNS achieved sales of 2.52 trillion KRW and operating profit of 170 billion KRW. Compared to the same period last year, sales increased by 4%, but operating profit decreased by 4%.
The largest shareholder of LG CNS is LG Corporation, holding 49.95% of the shares. The second-largest shareholder, Macquarie PE, holds 35%, and Koo Kwang-mo, chairman of LG Corporation, also holds 1.12% of the shares.
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