[Edaily Reporter Kwon Oh Seok ] IBK Investment & Securities announced on the 26th that it is maintaining its “Buy” investment rating and target price of 107,000 won for SKTelecom(017670).

Kim Tae-hyun, an analyst at IBK Investment & Securities, stated, “Consolidated revenue and operating profit for the second quarter are projected to be 4.3433 trillion won (+0.1% year-over-year) and 532.8 billion won (+57.5%), respectively, which is generally in line with the consensus and our previous estimates.” "We expect a significant base effect resulting from factors reflected in the second quarter of last year, such as the suspension of new business operations, subscriber churn, and the cost of replacing SIM cards for all subscribers (approximately 200 billion won)," he predicted.
On a standalone basis, revenue is projected at 3.1037 trillion won (-1.0%), and operating profit at 425.2 billion won (+69.5%). He noted, “While the proportion of subscribers on high-priced plans is steadily rising due to the expansion of 5G penetration, revenue is expected to decline slightly year-over-year due to the impact of subscriber losses following last year’s cyberattack.”
On the other hand, he explained, “Since last year saw one-time expenses such as increased commission payments (+26 billion won) for distribution network losses and SIM card replacement agent fees, as well as other operating expenses related to SIM card replacements (+153.5 billion won), operating profit is expected to increase significantly.”
Analyst Kim emphasized, “We forecast that SK Broadband’s revenue and operating profit will reach 1.1522 trillion won (+2.9%) and 106 billion won (+15.5%), respectively. Amid continued net growth in high-speed internet subscribers, the data center segment is expected to maintain robust growth, driven by rising utilization rates at the Gasan data center and the benefits of the Pangyo data center acquisition.”
He also expressed expectations for a normalization of earnings and a recovery in dividends in the second half of the year. He added, “Considering that costs related to customer appreciation packages—such as rate discounts and expanded membership benefits—amounting to approximately 5000억 won were reflected in the third and fourth quarters of last year, the trend of profit recovery is highly likely to continue steadily in the second half of this year as well.” He continued, “As annual earnings are expected to normalize to pre-hacking incident levels, the annual dividend is also highly likely to recover to the 2024 level of 3540 won.”