이 기사는 2022년 01월 26일 08:03 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

South Korea’s leading mobile carrier KT Corp plans to spin off its cloud and internet data center (IDC) division in the first half as part of its move to transform into a digital platform company.

KT is seriously exploring separating its cloud and IDC business division in the first half, industry sources said on Tuesday. As part of the move, KT applied for a trademark for KT cloud in December last year, with a high possibility of selecting it as the name of the new entity.

Industry sources said the company made its organizational reshuffle in late 2021 with the spin-off in mind. KT reinforced its 8 new growth engine businesses - cloud and digital transformation (DX), artificial intelligence (AI) and big data, robot and mobility, new media and content, healthcare and bio, real estate, space, and internet of things (IoT), finance and fintech, and new commerce – in its year-end executive reshuffle and organizational overhaul in November 2021.

KT newly established cloud and IDC business promotion office by combining cloud and DX business division and infra services division.

“We are reviewing many ways (including a separation of the cloud and IDC division) amid our push to become a digital platform company, but nothing has been finalized,” an official at KT said.

KT’s cloud and IDC business provides services including corporate cloud, government cloud, finance cloud, 5G edge cloud, hybrid cloud, DX platform, content delivery network, IDC colocation, IDC managed service provider, and IDC security and backup. Its cloud services are considered to have improved connectivity and excellent stability.

The cloud and IDC business has attributed to the increase in sales in the AI and DX division. The division’s revenue increased 29.7% in the third quarter of 2021 from a year ago, thanks to growing demand for AI contact center and new orders for the government and finance cloud services.

KT is the dominant player in the domestic IDC sector with about a 40% market share. It currently runs 14 IDC nationwide, mainly in the Seoul metropolitan area, and is searching for sites to provide additional IDCs.

A possible separation is part of KT’s move to boost its corporate value. The company aims to increase the group’s corporate value by restructuring the group’s affiliates and separating the cloud and IDC division, which will later attract external investments. (Reporting by Jang-jun Lee)