“People outside know it as just a marketing agency, but our goal is to become a rocket that helps companies with potential grow rapidly.”
KOSDAQ listed company
In an interview with the Korea Economic Daily on the 1st, CEO Cheol-Woong Kim (pictured) answered the question, ‘What is the company’s core business model?’ He introduced this business model as ‘business boosting’. It is a business that discovers potential companies, invests in them, raises corporate value through constitutional improvement and omnidirectional marketing, and even collects shares by selling them.
As a representative example of business boosting, CEO Kim cited the acquisition and resurrection of Andar, an athleisure (exercise + leisure) brand that was on the verge of bankruptcy in June 2021. He said, “After taking over Andar, we put in 30 to 40 people, more than 20% of our workforce. said. Andar has transformed from sales of 76 billion won and operating loss of 8.9 billion won in 2020 to sales of 169.1 billion won and operating profit of 12.6 billion won last year.
CEO Kim said, “Although a crisis has occurred, there are plans to invest in or acquire additional shares in companies with growth potential.” He said, “Compared to two or three years ago, the bubble is now bursting.” He said, “You can do M&A or equity investment anytime.” CEO Kim said, “Andar can be sold if it can get the right price in the market.”
Echo Marketing is a marketing company established in 2003. In 2017, it acquired Daily & Co, a direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand building company, and started its business boosting business in earnest.
Echo Marketing’s performance over the past five years has been upward-sloping. Sales of 62.1 billion won and operating profit of 16.9 billion won in 2018 increased to sales of 352.8 billion won and operating profit of 56.6 billion won last year. It is a sharp increase of 468.12% and 234.91%, respectively. This is attributable to advertising marketing performance and earnings growth at subsidiaries (Daily & Co., Andar).
However, the stock price fell 67.49% from 3 years ago (31,500 won on September 2, 2020) to 10,240 won on the 1st. It is analyzed that the drop in operating profit margin from 33.25% in 2020 to 16.04% last year due to the global economic slowdown adversely affected the stock price.
Recently, CEO Kim’s stake in Eco Marketing has decreased from 46.29% to 44.10%. This is the result of selling 707,681 stocks (about 7.4 billion won) in the market on four occasions from the 8th to the 11th of last month. CEO Kim said, “I had no choice but to sell because of the stock transfer tax,” and said, “There will be no more shares sold within this year.”
Reporter Yoon Hyun-ju [email protected]
2023-09-03 08:45:36
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