[Featured Stock] Ice Cream Media Surges on 'Strong Performance'

As of 9:30 a.m. on the 13th, Icecream Media is trading at 14,500 KRW on the KOSDAQ market, up 5.07% from the previous closing price. This appears to be thanks to the announcement of last year's performance and dividend decisions made the day before.

Icecream Media, which owns over 6.5 million educational content items, operates Icecream S, a digital class support platform that elementary school teachers can use during lessons. According to the company, more than approximately 93% of elementary school teachers nationwide use Icecream S. Since 2022, based on its experience operating Icecream S, the company has entered the elementary school textbook publishing business. In addition, it is also running Icecream Mall, an online shopping mall for educational materials, and Icecream Training Center, a remote education training institute business.

Earlier on the 12th, Icecream Media disclosed its preliminary results for last year based on individual financial statements, reporting sales of 152.2 billion KRW and operating profit of 46.1 billion KRW. Sales increased by 23.7%, and operating profit rose by 35.4%. Icecream Media explained the factors behind the performance changes as “increased sales of new subjects due to the adoption of the 2022 revised curriculum textbooks and growth in the commerce mall.” On the same day, Icecream Media also announced a dividend of 738 KRW per share, totaling 9.3 billion KRW.

Meanwhile, Icecream Media, which was listed last August, has not surpassed its initial public offering price of 32,000 KRW since its listing. This is believed to be due to concerns over the overhang (potential selling pressure) from the major shareholder family.

The largest shareholder of Icecream Media is Sigong Tech (26.57%). Sigong Tech Chairman Park Ki-seok holds 18.02%, and his eldest son, Park Dae-min, Sigong Tech’s Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), owns 9.5%. Given that Park CSO’s stake in Sigong Tech is only 2.86%, there have been ongoing speculations that he might sell shares of Icecream Media in the future to secure funds necessary for succession of Sigong Tech.

Previously, after the group company Icecream Edu was listed in 2019, the Park family sold shares on the market over a long period immediately after the six-month lock-up period ended.