Daily BriefsSouth Korea

South Korea: LG Energy Solution, SK Telecom and more

In today’s briefing:

  • LG Energy Solution: End of 6 Months Lock-Up Period & Valuation Sensitivity Analysis
  • KOSPI200 Lockup Release Events: LG Energy Solution, HYBE, Lotte Chilsung, & Krafton
  • SK Telecom & KT LONG/SHORT Swing Trading for Mean Reversion

LG Energy Solution: End of 6 Months Lock-Up Period & Valuation Sensitivity Analysis

By Douglas Kim

  • Our base case valuation LG Energy Solution is implied market cap of 75 trillion won or target price of 319,089 won, representing 25% below current share price.
  • Currently, LGES is trading at a premium valuation multiple on a EV/EBITDA (2023E) versus CATL. We believe LGES should trade at a discount to CATL in the next 6-12 months. 
  • LGES’s 6 months lock-up ends on 27 July and there are 4.3% of outstanding shares that can be sold which is likely to put negative pressure on share price.

KOSPI200 Lockup Release Events: LG Energy Solution, HYBE, Lotte Chilsung, & Krafton

By Sanghyun Park

  • HYBE and LG Energy have overhang risks. 2% of SO for HYBE and 3% for LG Energy will potentially hit the market. These are 4.46x and 19.89x ADTVs, respectively.
  • LG Energy is awaiting FTSE inclusion (June 17) and Solactive ETF inclusion (end-October). Still, from a timing perspective, these passive inflows are unlikely to offset the July 27 lockup release.
  • Their short interest is 1.63% (HYBE) and 0.46% (LG Energy), respectively. So, we need to consider a position buildup when their short interest shows significant upside movements.

SK Telecom & KT LONG/SHORT Swing Trading for Mean Reversion

By Sanghyun Park

  • Price decoupling relative to KT started after SKT’s foreign room trend began to reverse on May 23. The monthly price yield difference between these two is over 7%p.
  • From a short-term perspective, it seems that SKT seems to have entered somewhat oversold territory due to the FTSE outflow event.
  • Additional selling by the FTSE event this week will likely provide a suitable entry timing for a LONG/SHORT pair setup with KT on a swing-term window for mean reversion.

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