이 기사는 2021년 09월 10일 07:59 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

Kakao Pay, the payment services unit of mobile giant Kakao, has emphasized the appropriateness of a growth-adjusted enterprise value (EV)/sales, a calculation method it used when it valued itself for its planned initial public offering (IPO), in its revised prospectus.

Market insiders are paying keen attention to Kakao Pay’s IPO, not just because it is a blockbuster deal but because the method of calculating a corporate value is highly likely to be used as a reference for future listings of domestic platform companies.

Kakao Pay and its underwriters have decided to maintain the growth-adjusted EV/sales method in its modified prospectus to the financial authorities. The method was cited as one of the two major factors of the controversy over its high valuation along with adequacy of comparable companies such as PayPal.

During its prospectus adjustment process, Kakao Pay’s corporate value before applying an IPO discount increased around 1 trillion won ($855 million), which has made the firm lower the IPO price range by raising the discount rate.

This method of calculating a corporate value is unfamiliar in the domestic market, with Samsung Biologics being the only company that used the method when it valued itself in its listing in 2016.

However, more foreign tech firms are starting to value themselves using the growth-adjusted EV /sales method, including online education provider Coursera, online accommodation platform Airbnb, and virtual healthcare services company Teladoc Health.

In a revised prospectus, Kakao Pay also changed its peer companies Paypal Holdings and Square into StoneCo and Upstart Holdings for valuation.

Upstart was originally excluded from the reference, but Kakao Pay newly included the U.S.-based firm as it relaxed the standard for business similarity from 'B2C financial services platform companies' to 'companies that have a platform providing financial services'.

Kakao Pay has believed it is appropriate to include Upstart as its comparable company as it aims to expand its business to mortgage loans and SOHO loans in addition to existing personal credit loans.

Kakao Pay also reviewed more companies when re-selecting its peer companies. The company increased the population of comparable companies from 101 companies to 405 companies in a bid to fully reflect its aim to expand retail business of its brokerage unit, operate digital property insurance business, and invest in e-commerce partnership and equity.

PayPal and Square were removed from Kakao Pay’s peer group in the revised prospectus as their corporate value exceeds 100 trillion won. The South Korean firm has decided to only include companies whose corporate value is less than $50 billion to avoid controversy over an adequacy of comparable companies.

Kakao Pay has estimated its value at 17.8 trillion won before applying an IPO discount based on comparison with Brazil’s Pagseguro Digital, Nasdaq-listed StoneCo and American company Upstart. Pagseguro Digital’s corporate value is around 22 trillion won, StoneCo around 16 trillion won, and Upstart around 14 trillion won. (Reporting by Seok-cheol Choi)