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[Alpha Biz=(Chicago) Reporter Paul Lee] In the aftermath of the plunge in NCsoft's stock price, the domestic game leader, the valuation loss of Public Investment Fund (PIF) also increased. PIF is currently the second largest shareholder with a 9.26% stake in NCsoft.
On the 18th, NCsoft closed at 198,800 won, down 1.45%. It also went down to 189,900 won during the day. It is the first time in about eight years that NCsoft's stock price has fallen below 200,000 won since November 2015.
PIF bought 2,032,411 shares of NCsoft twice in January and February 2022 for simple investment purposes. At that time, NCsoft's stock price was between 530,000 won and 560,000 won. Based on the stock price at the time of purchase of PIF, it is estimated that about 1 trillion won has been invested. However, due to the continued decline in NCsoft stock prices, the current valuation is less than 400 billion won. In other words, PIF is losing 60 percent.
Korea Investment & Securities predicted NCsoft's operating profit in the fourth quarter of last year to be KRW 1.9 billion, lower than the market estimate of KRW 16.1 billion.
On the other hand, PIF is making a profit from investing in Japanese game stocks. PIF bought a large number of Nintendo stocks from 2022 to mid-2023 and owns about 8% of the shares.
It is known that a total of 600 billion yen was invested in the same period as Nexon, and the current valuation is estimated to reach 79 million yen. Nintendo shares have risen about 29% since the end of June last year when PIF last bought them, now exceeding 8,000 yen.
PIF has been actively investing in domestic and foreign game companies such as Nexon, NCsoft and Activision Blizzard, seeing the game and e-sports industries as future food. Last year, it was found to have invested the most among SWFs.
Alphabiz Reporter Paul Lee(hoondork1977@alphabiz.co.kr)
