Netmarble (251270 KP) Buy: Lowering earnings estimates but too cheap to ignore

Research evidence excerpt

Netmarble (251270 KP) Buy: Lowering earnings estimates but too cheap to ignore

90% of total revenues are from

mobile games as of 2025, we expect Netmarble to benefit from Google’s new app 52-WEEK PRICE (KRW)

store fee policy (lowering the fee by about 5% on average) from 2H26, along with the 72000

expanding portion of in-house payment system (we estimate at 10-20% of total

revenue). Reflecting the phased implementation of the new policy (by the end of

June 2026 for North America and Europe and by year-end 2026 for Korea and 06/25 12/25 06/2634000

Japan) we forecast the fee cost burden to drop by 2.4ppt y-o-y to 29.2% in 2027e Target price: 65000 High: 68000 Low: 40000 Current: 38400

from 31.6% in 2026e, leading OP growth of 25% y-o-y in 2027e.

Source: LSEG IBES, HSBC estimates

ii) Improving bottom-line: As of 1Q26, Netmarble carries about KRW950bn in short

and long-term borrowing, incurring around KRW70bn in annual interest expenses. Junhyun Kim*

Analyst, Korea Internet Gaming and Entertainment

However, the company recently sold its headquarters building for about KRW698bn, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation

which is expected to generate cash inflow of around KRW500bn. We think a major Limited, Seoul Securities Branch

junhyun.kim@kr.hsbc.com

portion of this will be used to pay down debt, which should lower its annual interest +82 2 3706 8763

burden by about KRW30bn in 2027. With the now limited likelihood of further

largescale impairment losses related to Spin-X Games, we expect net profit growth of * Employed by a non-US affiliate of HSBC Securities (USA) Inc, and is

35% y-o-y (based on adjusted 2026 NP excluding large one-off gains in 2026), higher not registered/ qualified pursuant to FINRA regulations

than its OP growth.