Asian Dividend Gems: KT Corp

• We have a Positive view of KT Corp (030200 KS) due to three main reasons.

• First, KT has started to implement aggressive capital return policy (returning 50% of net income through dividends and share buybacks/cancellations). Two other reasons include Corporate Value Up and higher Smartscore.

• KT Corp has been the best performing stock among the three major Korean telcos in the past one year. KT Corp's shares are up 27.9% in the past one year.

Conclusion First

We have a Positive view of KT Corp (030200 KS) due to three main reasons.

• First, KT has started to implement aggressive capital return policy (returning 50% of net income through dividends and share buybacks/cancellations).

• Second, KT is key beneficiary of Corporate Value Up policy especially due to its attractive valuations. It is currently trading at P/E of 7.9x, EV/EBITDA of 2.9x, and P/B of 0.56x based on 2024 consensus earnings estimates.

• Third, KT has the highest SmartScore among the three major telcos in Korea. KT's SmartScore is 4.2, higher than SK Telecom (017670 KS)'s 3.4 and LG Uplus Corp (032640 KS)'s 3.8. KT scores especially better than its competitors for Dividends and Resilience categories.

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