Douglas Kim

Equity Bottom-Up

<ul>
<li>After a terrible IPO book building results, K Car's shares have rallied nicely in the past several days. </li>
<li>The company generated sales of 1,400.6 billion won (up 42% YoY) and operating profit of 56.9 billion won (up 88.8% YoY) in 1Q-3Q 2021.</li>
<li>Our base to high case valuation of K Car is 38,809 won and 46,959 won, respectively, which represent 12% and 35% higher upside versus current price.</li>
</ul>

Sanghyun Park

Clepsydra Capital

Equity Capital Markets

Sumeet Singh

Aequitas Research

<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/k-car" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:34118:1" rel="noopener">K Car (381970 KS)</a> priced its IPO at KRW25,000 per share, 27% below the bottom-end of its initial IPO price range. The total number of shares sold down was also reduced to 13.5m from 16.8m shares. The company raised about US$291m.</p><p>K Car is a used car marketplace and dealership operating in South Korea. The company operates 41 offline dealership branches across South Korea, as of July, 2021. The company also operates online platforms like <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/compose/insight/58275/www.kcar.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.kcar.com</a> and K Car App that allows customers to purchase used cars.</p><p>In this note, we will look at the breakdown of institutional demand and valuation at the new price.</p><p>Our previous coverage of the IPO:</p><ul>
<li>
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/k-car-ipo-peer-comparison-and-valuation" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:57281" rel="noopener">K Car IPO - Peer Comparison and Valuation</a> </li>
<li>
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/k-car-pre-ipo-dominant-leadership-in-the-online-space" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:57212" rel="noopener">K Car Pre-IPO - Dominant Leadership in the Online Space</a> </li>
</ul>

<h2>Bookbuilding Results of K Car IPO</h2><p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/k-car" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:34118:1" rel="noopener">K Car (381970 KS)</a> announced today that the <a href="https://www.newsis.com/view/?id=NISX20210929_0001597864&amp;cID=15001&amp;pID=15000" target="_blank" rel="noopener">IPO price</a> has been determined at 25,000 won, which was below the IPO price range of 34,300 won and 43,200 won. There were mixed responses from the overseas and domestic institutional investors. Most of the global institutional investors, that have recorded high returns from IPOs of global used car trading online platform companies such as Carvana and Vroom in the US, applied at the upper end of the IPO offering price and showed solid demand. </p><p>On the other hand, the domestic institutional investors were more conservative in their view of this IPO, especially after the recent sluggish performance of major IPOs in Korea including <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/krafton-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:28956:1" rel="noopener"> Krafton Inc (259960 KS)</a> and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/lotte-rental-co-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:33445:1" rel="noopener">Lotte Rental (089860 KS)</a>. Plus, given the recent series of large scale IPOs in Korea, many local institutions have limited amount of funds for further investments in IPOs.  </p><div class="content-highlight">
<p>We continue to have a positive view of the K Car IPO following the bookbuilding results. However, it appears that the market (especially local investors) have taken a much more pessimistic view of this IPO especially due to the recent poor IPO of Lotte Rental combined with the threat of Hyundai Motor Group becoming a major competitor.</p>
<p>We have lowered our fair value assessment to 38,809 per share, which still represents an upside of 55% versus the IPO price of 25,000 won. Our fair value assessment is based on 0.9x P/S using our estimated sales of 2.3 trillion won for the company in 2022. While we maintained our earnings estimates, we lowered to target multiple by 30% in 2022. The 0.9x P/S multiple now reflects a 30% discount to the comps' multiples (which are mainly US based companies). </p>
</div>

<div><p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/k-car" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:34118:1" rel="noopener">K Car (KCAR KS)</a>  is looking to raise up to US$629m in its upcoming South Korea IPO.</p></div><div>
<p>K Car is a used car marketplace and dealership operating in South Korea. The company operates 41 offline dealership branches across South Korea, as of July, 2021. The company also operates online platforms like <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/compose/insight/57212/www.kcar.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.kcar.com</a> and K Car App that allows customers purchase used cars.</p>
<p>In this note, we will look at deal dynamics, assumptions, and share our thoughts on valuation.</p>
<p>Our previous coverage of the IPO:</p>
<ul><li>
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/k-car-pre-ipo-dominant-leadership-in-the-online-space" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:57212" rel="noopener">K Car Pre-IPO - Dominant Leadership in the Online Space</a> </li></ul>
</div>

South Korea

K Car Co., Ltd. retails used automobiles. The Company distributes sedans, commercial vehicles, light trucks, utility vehicles, used vehicles, and other related automobiles. K Car markets its products throughout South Korea.

K Car - 381970 KS

Description