[Featured Stock] LG Uplus Hits 5 Consecutive Days of Record Highs... Exclusive Provider of 'China's YouTube' Bilibili

52-Week High for 5 Consecutive Trading Days from the 20th
Bilibili Content to Be Exclusively Supplied via IPTV
Strengthening Shareholder Returns with 40% Dividend of Net Profit

LG Uplus has set a new 52-week high for five consecutive trading days. This appears to be due to a combination of factors including a bold shareholder return policy, expectations of improved earnings, and news of exclusive content supply from Bilibili, known as the 'YouTube of China.'

As of 9:49 a.m. on the 26th, LG Uplus is trading at 11,400 KRW, up 1.42% (160 KRW) from the previous trading day. Since reaching an intraday high of 10,590 KRW on the 20th, surpassing the one-year high of 10,550 KRW recorded last December, LG Uplus has been rising for five consecutive trading days.

On this day, LG Uplus announced that it will exclusively provide Bilibili’s content, known as the 'YouTube of China,' through its Internet TV (IPTV) service. This is the first time in Korea. Bilibili had over 300 million monthly active users in 2022, and it is especially popular among younger generations. LG Uplus has previously introduced major overseas content for the first time in Korea, including content from the American CBS supplied by Paramount and original content from Amazon Prime.

According to Hana Securities, LG Uplus announced through a value-up disclosure that it will pay more than 40% of its net income as dividends while simultaneously planning to repurchase treasury shares amounting to 0-20% of net income. Theoretically, while maintaining the existing dividend per share of 650 KRW, approximately 70 billion KRW worth of treasury shares are expected to be repurchased annually, increasing the annual shareholder return scale to 350 billion KRW.

Improved earnings are also anticipated. Despite a slowdown in upselling of mobile plans, mobile phone revenue is expected to grow as the number of mobile subscribers continues to increase, mainly through MVNO and M2M subscribers. Strong effects of controlling major operating expenses such as marketing costs and depreciation expenses are expected. Kim Hong-sik, a researcher at Hana Securities, said, "Considering that the slowdown in inflation rate next year will continue to reduce increases in labor costs and other expenses, there is a high possibility of turning to an increase in operating profit."