[Featured Stock] NAVER's Stock Falls Despite Record Earnings... Webtoon Spin-off Listing Controversy Continues

Q3 Revenue and Operating Profit Hit Record Highs but Stock Price Declines
No Sign of Recovery from Half-Value Level Since 'Choi Su-yeon Era'
Nasdaq-bound Naver Webtoon Stagnates... Ongoing Dissatisfaction with 'Split Listing'

NAVER recorded its highest-ever quarterly earnings, but its stock price retreated. The controversy over the spinoff listing of Webtoon remains.

As of 10:55 AM on the 8th, NAVER was trading at 175,900 KRW, down 2.11% (3,800 KRW) from the previous trading day. NAVER hit an intraday high of 182,800 KRW (up 3.98%) early in the session but has been declining since the earnings announcement.

On the same day, NAVER disclosed that its third-quarter revenue was preliminarily estimated at 2.7156 trillion KRW, an 11.1% increase compared to the same period last year. Operating profit reached 525.3 billion KRW, up 38.2% year-over-year and 11.1% quarter-over-quarter, marking the largest quarterly figure in history. Net profit rose 48.8% year-over-year to 530.1 billion KRW.

NAVER’s stock price has not recovered from a 50% drop since CEO Choi Soo-yeon took office in 2022. Although quarterly earnings have slightly exceeded market consensus and continued record-breaking performance, questions remain regarding its competitiveness in artificial intelligence (AI) and securing revenue models.

Moreover, since Naver Webtoon was listed on the Nasdaq earlier this year, its stagnant stock price has increasingly frustrated shareholders who invested in NAVER. This is a typical controversy over spinoff listings unique to Korean companies. In the domestic stock market evaluation of NAVER, Naver Webtoon is effectively excluded. The struggling stock price of the spinoff-listed Naver Webtoon negatively impacts NAVER, the largest shareholder of Naver Webtoon, by lowering the value of its Naver Webtoon stake. Naver Webtoon, listed on Nasdaq under the ticker 'WBTN (Webtoon Entertainment),' is trading around 11 USD, about half of its initial public offering price of 21 USD.