[Click e-Stock] "SK, Expectations for Resolving Holding Company Discount... Target Price Up"

Yuanta Securities stated on June 18 that "Expectations for resolving the holding company discount are likely to drive SK's stock price higher for the time being," and raised its target price to 260,000 won. The investment opinion was maintained at 'Buy'.

Lee Seungwoong, a researcher at Yuanta Securities, said on this day, "SK has already presented a plan to enhance corporate value through improving ROE (Return on Equity) and expanding shareholder returns last year." He explained, "Through portfolio rebalancing and OI, the company is targeting an ROE of 8% for 2024 to 2026, and aiming for 10% after 2027 by monetizing new businesses such as artificial intelligence (AI)." He added, "Shareholder returns will also be strengthened, with a minimum dividend per share of 5,000 won and plans for share buybacks and cancellations or additional dividends at the level of 1-2% of market capitalization for 2024 to 2026."

He also predicted that financial structure improvement through group-wide restructuring would continue. Lee explained, "In the first quarter, SK recognized a disposal gain of 2.6 trillion won from the sale of SK Specialty, and separate net borrowings decreased from 10.5 trillion won at the end of last year to 8.1 trillion won."

He continued, "On May 13, it was decided to transfer semiconductor materials subsidiaries such as SK Trichem, SK Resonac, SK Materials JNC, and SK Materials Performance to SK Ecoplant through in-kind contribution and a comprehensive share exchange, with the goal of completing the transaction by December this year." In addition, C&C decided to sell the Pangyo Data Center to SK Broadband for 506.8 billion won, and the sale of SK Siltron is also underway. He added, "Further improvement in the financial structure is expected as a result of rebalancing effects from portfolio adjustments by the second half of the year."