KakaoBank Corp.'s (KRX:323410) top owners are public companies with 54% stake, while 31% is held by individual investors

Key Insights

• Significant control over KakaoBank by public companies implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• A total of 2 investors have a majority stake in the company with 54% ownership
• 14% of KakaoBank is held by Institutions

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To get a sense of who is truly in control of KakaoBank Corp. (KRX:323410), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. With 54% stake, public companies possess the maximum shares in the company. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Meanwhile, individual investors make up 31% of the company’s shareholders.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of KakaoBank, beginning with the chart below.

Check out our latest analysis for KakaoBank

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About KakaoBank?

Institutional investors commonly compare their own returns to the returns of a commonly followed index. So they generally do consider buying larger companies that are included in the relevant benchmark index.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in KakaoBank. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see KakaoBank's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

KakaoBank is not owned by hedge funds. The company's largest shareholder is Kakao Corp., with ownership of 27%. Korea Investment Holdings Co., Ltd. is the second largest shareholder owning 27% of common stock, and National Pension Service holds about 6.1% of the company stock.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 2 shareholders collectively control more than half of the company's shares, implying that they have considerable power to influence the company's decisions.

While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. There are a reasonable number of analysts covering the stock, so it might be useful to find out their aggregate view on the future.

Insider Ownership Of KakaoBank

The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.

Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.

We note our data does not show any board members holding shares, personally. Given we are not picking up on insider ownership, we may have missing data. Therefore, it would be interesting to assess the CEO compensation and tenure, here.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 31% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. This size of ownership, while considerable, may not be enough to change company policy if the decision is not in sync with other large shareholders.

Public Company Ownership

It appears to us that public companies own 54% of KakaoBank. We can't be certain but it is quite possible this is a strategic stake. The businesses may be similar, or work together.

Next Steps:

I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. Be aware that KakaoBank is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis , you should know about...

If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its future.

NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.