[Edaily Reporter Park Jung-Soo ] On the 9th, IBK Investment & Securities projected that GnCenergy Co., Ltd.(119850)would see a significant increase in orders for emergency generators as domestic investment in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers expands. The firm initiated coverage with a “Buy” rating and a new target price of 70,000 won. The stock closed at 44,800 won the previous day.

Jo Eun-ae, an analyst at IBK Investment & Securities, stated, “The AI data center projects being carried out by GS Holdings, NAVER, and SK—with a target completion date of 2029—have a total capacity of 8.4 GW, which translates to a market size of 4.2 trillion won for emergency generators,” adding “Applying GnCenergy Co., Ltd.’s market share of approximately 70% in the data center emergency generator sector, this amounts to 2.9 trillion won. This implies that orders equivalent to about 10 times this year’s projected emergency generator revenue could flow into the order backlog over the next few years,” she analyzed.
Data centers have a greater demand for emergency generators than general buildings. While the installed generator capacity in general buildings is around 20% of the power supply capacity, data centers—where a power outage immediately leads to service interruption—deploy emergency generators equivalent to 110–150% of their total power capacity. This accounts for the power required for servers and cooling, plus redundancy systems. GnCenergy Co., Ltd. holds approximately a 70% market share in the domestic emergency generator market for data centers.
In particular, since emergency generators are typically ordered before construction on a data center begins, the company expects orders to grow more rapidly than for other equipment. Data centers take about two years from groundbreaking to completion, and since engine procurement alone takes one to two years for emergency generators, orders are typically placed six to twelve months before construction begins. Accordingly, the company projected that orders related to major AI data center projects scheduled for completion in 2029 will be concentrated from the second half of this year through 2027.
An upward trend in orders is already evident. As of the end of the first half of this year, the order backlog for emergency generators stood at 414.7 billion won, and new orders for data center emergency generators announced since last July alone totaled five projects worth 207.2 billion won. Daol Investment & Securities expects new orders to rise from 468.6 billion won this year to 900 billion won in 2027 and 1 trillion won in 2028. During the same period, the order backlog is projected to expand from 639.8 billion won to 1.2 trillion won and then to 1.7 trillion won.
Improved profitability is also anticipated. Emergency generators for data centers are not simply generator units but rather complete systems that include grid design and parallel control, resulting in higher unit prices and greater profitability compared to general industrial applications. The share of data center emergency generators in GnCenergy Co., Ltd.’s total emergency generator sales rose from 51% in 2023 to 76% in 2025, while the gross profit margin also increased from 13% to 21% over the same period.
The growing share of high-margin gas turbines is also a positive development. Gas turbines offer margins 10–30% higher than diesel generators. Daol Investment & Securities forecasts that the share of data center emergency generator sales will rise from 76% this year to 83% in 2027 and 86% in 2028, with the gross profit margin improving to 18%, 20%, and 22%, respectively.
For this year, the firm projected consolidated revenue of 285.7 billion won—a 9% year-over-year increase—and operating profit of 42.1 billion won, a 15% decrease. However, it forecast that by 2027, revenue will rise 48% to 423.5 billion won and operating profit will increase 70% to 71.3 billion won, expanding further to 543.0 billion won and 101.9 billion won, respectively, by 2028.
Analyst Cho stated, “Even with just the 8.4 GW projects scheduled through 2029, an order market of over 1 trillion won will open up every year,” adding, “It is now time to raise expectations for positive earnings drivers such as new orders, capacity expansion, and rising profitability.”