이 기사는 2022년 04월 25일 08:07 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

South Korea's security service provider SK shieldus is expected to tout growth potential of its cyber security business in its planned initial public offering (IPO).

SK shieldus is providing cyber security services under the brand name of infosec. SK shieldus is the new name of ADT Caps, a subsidiary of SK Group’s newly formed investment holding entity SK Square.

The company has provided managed security service, security consulting, solution and system integration, cloud security and mobile care solutions since 2000 and has been the country’s top cyber security service provider since 2016.

The cyber security business delivered 335.1 billion won ($270 million) in revenue, 21.6% of SK shieldus’ total revenue. The business is the company’s second largest source of revenue after physical security, which accounted for 59.2% of the total revenue. The converged security and safe & care (S&C) business each took up 15.8% and 3.4% of the total revenue.

SK shieldus’ cyber security business consists of two groups – service delivery and security expert. The service delivery group provides 24/7 monitoring and protection against cyber attacks and computer emergency response team (CERT). The security expert group focuses on threat hunting, threat research and Top-CERT.

SK shieldus’ Secudium Center is a security operations center that monitors and responds to security threats and cyber security incidents in real time.

SK shiedus made changes in its comparable companies in its registration statement. It initially included ADT, S-1, Ahnlab, Alarm.com and Qualys as its peer companies, but the new registration statement included S-1, Ahnlab, CyberOne and Taiwan Secom as comparable companies.

SK shieldus operates four businesses: physical security, cyber security, converged security and safe & care (S&C).

The change was made because the company believed that the peer companies SK shieldus picked for the converged security and S&C businesses were not suitable for comparison given the two businesses are growing by an average of 90.1% and 68.2%, respectively.

SK shieldus relies heavily on its physical security business. The business has a stable source of revenue, but has lower growth potential than the other three businesses.

SK shieldus has selected S-1 and Taiwan Secom as its comparable companies for the physical security business. The two companies’ enterprise value/earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EV/EBITDA) were 5.85 times and 11.7 times, respectively, In contrast, the peer companies for the cyber security business, Ahnlab and CyberOne, had EV/EBITDA of 24.23 times and 17.66 times, respectively, The company needs to highlight its capability in the cyber security business to appeal to potential investors.

The company has proposed an IPO price band of 31,000 won to 38,800 won per share. Based on its guidance, the company’s market capitalization is estimated to be between 2.8 trillion won and 3.5 trillion won. (Reporting by Jang-jun Lee)