J.P.Morgan Asia Pacific Equity Research: South Korea First to Market

Research evidence excerpt

J.P.Morgan Asia Pacific Equity Research: South Korea First to Market

Asia Pacific Equity Research

South Korea First to Market 20 July 2026

Top Stories

| SK Telecom (Stanley Yang) (017670 KS, OW, PT W110,000)

AI factory build-out emerges as next catalyst; upgrade to OW

SKT's share price has pulled back 27% from the latest peak (vs. KOSPI’s -22%), reflecting investors’ rationalized view on the

Anthropic proxy trade, in our view. We expect volatility tied to the proxy trade to moderate as optimism appears largely priced

in. We are instead focusing on SKT’s growing investment case as an AI datacenter (“AI factory”) player after its aggressive

capacity expansion plan. We see room for meaningful progress, supported by SK Group’s strong position across the global AI

value chain—an increasingly important catalyst for the stock. We upgrade to OW and raise our SoTP-based Dec-27 PT by 38%

to W110,000 (23% potential upside) on reflecting W3T value for the <0.3% stake in Anthropic and W3T for the AI DC business

(plus submarine cable) (previous PT Dec-26 W80,000).

HYBE (Benjamin Kim/Stanley Yang) (352820 KS, OW, PT W340,000)

2Q preview: Expect BTS world tour-driven earnings beat; Maintain OW

We expect strong 2Q OP of W175B (14% above recently raised Street consensus) driven by robust BTS IP monetization

across concert ticket/merchandise sales, which, however, is slightly below our prior estimates due to likely softer ancillary

revenue streams (e.g., Content, Weverse). With BTS's world tour extending through 1Q27E, we see earnings momentum

carrying into coming quarters. Beyond 2Q results, we expect investor focus to shift to: 1) the durability of BTS-led earnings

momentum and 2) the pace of non-BTS IP ramp-up. We remain watchful for further visibility for BTS activities beyond the