Kakao Corp. has drawn over 2 million individual shareholders, cementing its status as the second most favorite stock for Koreans after Samsung Electronics Co.

According to Korean household platform operator’s quarterly report on Thursday, a total of 2,019,216 small retail investors held shares in the company as of Sept. 30, nearly quadrupled from 561,027 at the end of last year. It is the first time the number has exceeded 2 million.

Only Samsung Electronics commands more than 2 million individual shareholders in Korea.

The count hit 5,188,804 at the end of September after gaining from 2,153,969 at the end of 2020.

The distant third favorite likely is Hyundai Motor Co., in which the number small shareholders amounted to 581,803 at the end of last year. The company has yet to disclose latest count on small shareholders but would have added substantially, given individual net buy this year.

Retailers have net purchased 13.04 million in Hyundai Motor shares as of the end of September, although half of their net purchases of Kakao shares.

Kakao like Samsung Electronics was able to bring on an army of individuals onboard after their stocks became accessible through a stock split.

The company administered 5-to-1 stock split in April shaving Kakao’s face value to 100 won from 500 won. After the stock split, the number of small shareholders rose sharply to 1,541,106 at the end of June from 714,708 at the end of March.

Strong financial results and rosy earnings outlook for its subsidiaries also added appeal.

Kakao shares climbed to 173,000 won on June 23 from 76,900 won (adjusted price) at the end of last year, the largest gain of 108.5 percent among the top 20 stocks by market cap on the Kospi.

The stock peaked out in June and has been skidding from early September on concerns about regulatory risk to online platform operators. Kakao shares lost 36 percent from the June peak to 110,500 won early last month and recently have been boxed at 120,000 won level.

Others with comparably bulky retail ownership include Kakao Bank (794,655), Naver (782,829), KEPCO (737,045), LG Electronics (587,812), SK IET (447,062), SK hynix (431,633), SK Innovation (350,348), SK Bioscience (334,967), and Samsung SDI (309,060).

By Pulse

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