SEOUL :South Korean tech conglomerate Kakao Corp stated on Thursday unit Kakao Leisure secured a 1.2 trillion gained ($966.27 million) funding from main sovereign wealth funds.
The transfer, which Kakao stated was the most important abroad funding in a South Korean content material firm, alerts traders’ bullish outlook for Korean contents’ development potential and its “recession-proof” tendencies when weak a financial outlook has dried up liquidity in lots of different sectors, analysts stated.
Singapore’s GIC and Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund (PIF) determined to every make investments 600 billion gained within the leisure agency, native newspaper Korea Financial Day by day reported on Thursday, citing unnamed funding banking sources.
Kakao, nonetheless, didn’t identify the sovereign wealth funds in its assertion. GIC and PIF didn’t instantly remark.
Kakao Corp shares rose 1 per cent in early morning commerce, outperforming a 0.2 per cent rise within the wider market.
“It is important that we had been in a position to safe funds of this scale at a time when each the Korean and international markets face a number of uncertainty and funding sentiment is weak,” Kakao Chief Funding Officer Bae Jae-hyun stated.
Unlisted Kakao Leisure has a enterprise portfolio starting from Ok-Pop – together with artist administration – to reveals, motion pictures, and online-targeted, comparatively low-cost content material corresponding to comics referred to as webtoons and serial internet novels.
“Webtoons and internet novels are steadily being become profitable dramas and different codecs, so traders assume that is good worth and timing to put money into an mental property holder,” stated Kim Jin-woo, analyst at Daol Funding & Securities.
“Having secured funds, Kakao Leisure could search to strengthen its artist lineup that may higher goal abroad markets by way of M&A or different methods.”
($1 = 1,241.8900 gained)