이 기사는 2021년 05월 12일 07시50분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

The planned initial public offering of Kakao Pay may value Kakao’s payment business at as much as 18 trillion won ($16 billion), according to estimates by analysts, underlining the promising growth prospects of the company.

Analysts have put the company’s valuation at between 10 trillion won and 18 trillion won. The highest 18 trillion won valuation, estimated by eBest Investment & Securities, represents 0.18 times the company’s expected gross merchandise value (GMV) for 2021.

Kakao Pay’s GMV grew 40% year on year to 67 trillion won in 2020. GMV for the first quarter of this year came in 22.8 billion won, with the full-year figure expected to reach 100 trillion won.


Typically, the price to book ratio is used to value financial services firms. But GMV has been used for the valuation of Kakao Pay because of its business model focused on a platform ecosystem. A platform company, like Kakao Pay, needs heavy investment in resources in early years. But once its business ecosystem is formed, growth in revenue and earnings can accelerate dramatically.

Kakao Pay has partnerships with many other financial services firms – such as banks, credit card companies, insurers and brokerage firms – which sell their offerings on Kakao Pay’s platform. Continued growth in the platform’s users and GMV would allure more financial services firms to partner with the company, which in turn could lead to revenue growth.

Kakao Pay was spun off from Kakao in 2017. Its revenue grew 27-fold in the past three years, from 10.6 billion won in 2017 to 284.4 billion won 2020. Operating loss was reduced from 96.5 billion won in 2018 to 17.9 billion won in 2020, with the company expected to turn profitable this year.

Meanwhile, SK Securities and Shinhan Investment estimated Kakao Pay’s valuation to be 10.66 trillion won and 10.3 trillion won, respectively, based the company’s expected GMV this year.

KTB Investment & Securities estimated Kakao Pay to be worth 13.2 trillion won based on monthly active users (MAU). The valuation is equal to revenue per MAU of 737,000 won multiplied by the company’s MAU, which is expected to grow to 17.9 million this year. (Reporting by Hana Suh)