{"id":128309,"date":"2026-08-21T23:40:37","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T23:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/128309\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T23:40:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T23:40:37","slug":"kakao-plunges-12-on-plan-to-split-into-ai-and-investment-firms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/128309\/","title":{"rendered":"Kakao Plunges 12% on Plan to Split Into AI and Investment Firms"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AtAt Kakao’s annual general meeting held at its Jeju headquarters on March 26 this year, Kakao CEO Chung Shina delivers a speech. Kakao<\/p>\n

Kakao (035720.KS) fell nearly 12% after announcing plans to split into two companies through a spin-off: “Kakao AI,” which will handle its artificial intelligence business, and “Kakao X,” which will oversee investments and subsidiaries. Although the spin-off structure gives existing shareholders stock in both companies, investors appeared wary of the valuation uncertainty that could arise as the company’s value is divided between the two entities.<\/p>\n

As of 11:04 a.m. on the 21st, Kakao was trading at 34,150 won, down 4,550 won, or 11.76%, from the previous session, according to the Korea Exchange. After opening the day at 38,150 won, the stock extended its losses to as low as 33,600 won during the session.<\/p>\n

Kakao’s board of directors met that day and approved the plan to split the company into a newly created entity, Kakao AI, and a surviving entity, Kakao X. Based on net asset book value, the split ratio is 0.36 for Kakao AI and 0.64 for Kakao X. Existing shareholders will be allocated stock in both companies in proportion to their current holdings.<\/p>\n

Trading was temporarily halted immediately after the disclosure. The Korea Exchange suspended trading in Kakao for 30 minutes at 10:04 a.m., then resumed it at 10:44 a.m. following a single-price auction. Just before the halt, Kakao was down 7.24% at 35,900 won, but losses widened into the double digits once trading restarted.<\/p>\n

Kakao AI will run a platform business centered on KakaoTalk, linking AI with advertising and commerce. Chung Shin-ah, the current CEO of Kakao, has been named to lead the new company. Kakao X will operate as a future-value investment company overseeing major business lines including tech-fin, content and mobility, as well as new growth businesses. Kim Do-young, CEO of Kakao Investment and head of the group investment strategy office at the CA council, is set to lead the company.<\/p>\n

Unlike a physical division, a spin-off gives existing shareholders direct stakes in the new company, so it does not by itself dilute their holdings. However, once core businesses and subsidiary stakes are divided into separate listed companies, the appropriate value and growth potential applied to each entity may be reassessed. The resulting short-term uncertainty appears to have weighed on investor sentiment.<\/p>\n

Kakao plans to complete the split on Jan. 1 next year, following an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting on Dec. 17. On Jan. 27 next year, it will pursue a relisting of Kakao AI and a modified listing of Kakao X. On the morning of that day, the company will hold a briefing for domestic and overseas analysts titled “Accelerating Growth and Enhancing Shareholder Value Through Governance Restructuring,” where it will explain the specific rationale for the split and its business strategy.<\/p>\n

\"null<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At Kakao’s annual general meeting held at its Jeju headquarters on March 26 this year, Kakao CEO Chung…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[622],"tags":[65598,46036,827,19889,65328,831,337],"class_list":["post-128309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-kakao","tag-chung-shin-ah","tag-corporate-spin-off","tag-kakao","tag-kakao-ai","tag-kakao-x","tag-kakaotalk","tag-korea-exchange"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}