Kakao Pay reports big miss with widening 2021 loss

Kakao Pay reported a 32.3 billion won ($27 million) net loss in 2021, compared to a 2020 net loss of 25.1 billion won.

The bank blamed higher costs related to its listing and the formation of a trading service for Kakao Pay Securities. It went public in November.

Its operating loss for 2021 was 27.2 billion won. Analysts had forecast a 2.6 billion won loss.

Revenue was 458.6 billion won in 2021, up from 284.4 billion won in 2020.

The company, which was formed by Kakao, is now 47.83-percent owned by Kakao and 39.1-percent owned by Alipay Singapore Holding.

It offers mobile payment, remittances, insurance and loans and is Korea's No.1 mobile payment service, with 20.44 million monthly active users as of the third quarter.

Total transactions made on Kakao Pay jumped 48 percent to 99 trillion won in 2021. The growth was helped by online transactions, which increased 67 percent on year, and remittance services, up 37 percent.

Kakao Pay "will focus on solidifying the business foundation, setting this year's business direction to 'back to the basics,'" the company said in a statement on Tuesday. It added that it will focus on improving the user experience of its core services, offering consistency in user experience and strengthening the link between core and profitable businesses.

Kakao Pay Securities will start to offer stock trading next week, which is currently being offered in beta. Kakao Pay said investors will be able to buy less than a single share of foreign stocks starting in March.

The company has performed poorly since its 2021 stock market debut. Kakao Pay stock is down almost 50 percent from the 238,500-won peak.

Widening losses and investor anger related to exercise of stock options by senior executives is being blamed for the dramatic fall in the share price.

"The management's exercise of stock option isn't illegal, but it negatively affected the market credibility," said Choi Kwan-soon, an analyst at SK Securities, slashing its target price by more than 30 percent to 145,000 won.

Kakao Pay was trading at 130,500 Tuesday.

BY JIN MIN-JI [jin.minji@joongang.co.kr]