Naver continues its aggressive investment this year. In particular, it will target the global market, focusing on the e-commerce market, such as shopping, which is undergoing’stormy growth’. To this end, it is planning to raise investment funds by issuing corporate bonds at home and abroad in the first half of the year.
Naver Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Park Sang-jin said in a conference call (telephone conference) after the 4Q 2020 earnings announcement on the 28th, “To secure investment funds for accelerating growth, Is considering issuing corporate bonds.”
“This is the purpose of preparing financial resources for global business expansion. It includes investments in the global e-commerce market,” he said. “After financing, we will accelerate our global advance through various investment opportunities.”
Naver’s shopping business is growing rapidly. Last year’s sales rose 37.6% over the previous year to KRW 1.89 trillion. The number of smart stores led by SMEs is also rapidly increasing. As of December last year, the number of smart stores reached 410,000. The number of stores with monthly transactions of more than 100 million won was 4,000, more than doubled from the same period last year.
It also actively invested in the logistics sector for SMEs and companies that have entered the store. Last year, full-filment startups such as WeKip, Duson Company, FSS, and Hourbox received investment from Naver. In the same year, it exchanged a stake worth 600 billion won with CJ Group and formed a strategic partnership. In particular, through cooperation with CJ Logistics, the number one logistics company in Korea, it began to strengthen its logistics capabilities.
This year, Naver continues this trend. In particular, it focuses on expanding its market globally. The size of the investment will be decided according to the process of cooperation with partners. CFO Park said, “Naver will make full-fledged investments for global expansion and expansion based on proven technology in Korea. In particular, Korean SMEs and Naver showed mutual growth. We are trying to invest so that SMEs can expand to the global ecosystem by creating a window through which they can advance overseas. We expect to see a lot of investment in the field.” “It is also important to strengthen membership in the commerce ecosystem. In that context, the content business can also be invested.”
“When I think about the commerce value chain (value chain), especially in the logistics sector, it is better to strengthen competitiveness through the outside rather than through its own supply and demand,” he said. Logistics) is important.” Naver CEO Han Seong-suk said, “The investment in the existing logistics service full-filment company was for smart store operators.” “How to connect companies and smart store operators to focus on sales without worrying about logistics using full-filment We are considering it from a point of view.”
It also revealed its dividend policy. Separately, 5% of net income, or 59.3 billion won, is paid as a total dividend, and a total of 86.9 billion won of treasury stock is canceled in order to maintain the average shareholder return policy. CFO Park said, “We will use our current treasury stock only for the purpose of enhancing shareholder value.” I will continue to use it as an investment resource as I used it.”
On the other hand, on the same day, Naver announced that it achieved consolidated sales of 5,3041 billion won and operating profit of 1,225.3 billion won last year through a public announcement.