J.P. Morgan South Korea FTM 13 May 26 S-Oil Corp; Pearl Abyss; Hanwha Life Insurance; KT Corp.; Global EV & Battery Update and More

Research evidence excerpt

J.P. Morgan South Korea FTM 13 May 26 S-Oil Corp; Pearl Abyss; Hanwha Life Insurance; KT Corp.; Global EV & Battery Update and More

Asia Pacific Equity Research

South Korea First to Market 13 May 2026

Top Stories

| S-Oil Corp (Parsley Ong) (010950 KS, OW, PT W135,000)

Golden age of refining. Raise EPS/PT and upgrade to OW

S-Oil reported a strong 1Q26 OP of W1231bn, beating BBG consensus of W745bn, albeit slightly missing JPMe of W1.4trn due

to lower than expected 1Q26 inventory gains. Post results, we raise our 2026-2030 refining margin forecasts to $10-25/bbl

(previous: $7.5-8.5/bbl, Table 1 JPMAsiaGRM($/bl)) to reflect 2.5mbd effective capacity outages from Russia/ME/RoW. In tandem, we raise

FY26/27 EPS forecasts for S-Oil by ~75%/10% and upgrade the stock to OW. Majority of the recent investor concerns have

centered on domestic refining losses given the Korean government’s price cap mechanism and uncertainty on the timing and

calculation method of compensation. However, we view the compensation as more of a delayed impact and see upside risk to

FY26/27 consensus given our raised GRM estimates.

Pearl Abyss (Stanley Yang) (263750 KS, UW)

Crimson Desert on track with AAA game, but momentum is behind; PT W46K

Crimson Desert (CD)’s revenue came in at W267B (JPMe: 3.3M copies) in 1Q, 22% below our estimate due to deferred

revenue from offline distribution and a slight reimbursement. However, management guided to CD’s sequential strong 2Q

revenue (W224~277B, JPMe: 2.8~3.5M copies) and full year revenue (W644~735B, JPMe: 8.1~9.2M copies), both slightly

above our expectations. 1Q OP (W212B) missed our estimates but slightly beat Street consensus thanks to the

deconsolidation of CCP Games’ EVE IP (loss-making). We raise our FY2026 OP estimate by 47% to W505B (mid to lower end