Grand Korea Leisure: Stable recovery but less leverage to inbound upcycle; downgrade to Neutral

Research evidence excerpt

Grand Korea Leisure: Stable recovery but less leverage to inbound upcycle; downgrade to Neutral

Global Research

26 June 2026ab

Grand Korea Leisure Equities

KoreaStable recovery but less leverage to inbound

upcycle; downgrade to Neutral Casinos

12-month rating Neutral

Prior : Buy

12m price target Won11,500Downgrade to Neutral, as location alone is not enough in an inbound upcycle

Prior : Won17,200

We downgrade GKL to Neutral, as it has less control over customer retention tools than

integrated resort peers, limiting its ability to turn stronger traffic into outsized earnings Price (25 Jun 2026) Won10,720

growth, in our view. We had a Buy rating on GKL as its favourable Seoul locations RIC: 114090.KS BBG: 114090 KS

position it favourably to capture foreign visitors. Yet despite this location advantage,

GKL's mass drop growth has been less pronounced than we had expected, suggesting Trading data and key metrics

location alone is not enough to monetise demand. GKL's asset-light model keeps 52-wk range Won17,490-10,610

earnings clean and valuation is undemanding at 1SD below its average; but without a Market cap. Won663b/US$0.43b

visible capacity catalyst, we see these as downside support rather than re-rating drivers. Shares o/s 61.9m (ORD)

Free float 49%

Asset-light model is clean but caps upside Avg. daily volume ('000) 368

GKL's asset-light model offers lower capital intensity, cleaner cash generation and a Avg. daily value (m) Won4,299.8

limited hotel-related cost burden. But this comes with limited control: 1) annual site rent Common s/h equity (12/26E) Won472b

of more than Won20bn remains recurring leakage, equivalent to c60%/48% of P/BV (12/26E) 1.4x

2024/25 OP and more than 40% of our 2026-28E OP estimates; and 2) complimentary Net debt to EBITDA (12/26E) NM