[Apha Biz=(Chicago) Reporter Paul Lee] Cyber security companies' earnings growth in the first half of this year has slowed somewhat.

AhnLab continued its gradual rise this year following the previous year. Sales in the first half of the year were 110.4 billion won, the only cyber security company to exceed 100 billion won in semi-annual sales. It grew 6.9% year-on-year, but its operating profit fell 7.6% year-on-year to 6.5 billion won.

AhnLab's drop in operating profit is attributed to its investment in operating technology (OT) company Naoworks, which it acquired in 2021. AhnLab grew 7.2% and 4.5% year-on-year to 107 billion won in sales and 10 billion won in operating profit in the first half of the year based on separate financial statements.

SECUI, which holds the second place after AhnLab, saw its sales fall slightly, but its operating profit improved significantly. Sales of 72.7 billion won and operating profit of 11.2 billion won in the first half of 2023. Sales fell 0.09% and operating profit increased 46.9%.

Iglu Corporation, which entered the 100 billion club in annual sales last year, saw its sales rise but turned into a deficit. It is expanding investment in new technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (AI), and due to the nature of the security control business of public institutions as its core business, it is difficult to prejudge the situation as its performance is concentrated in the second half of the year. As of the first half of the year, there is still a backlog of orders for service businesses worth 41.6 billion won.

Wins, which entered the 100 billion club with Iglo Corporation in annual sales, continued to grow the most visible among major companies. In the first half of the year, sales were 48.9 billion won and operating profit was 10.9 billion won, a sharp increase of 21.2% and 63%, respectively. Sales of products such as intrusion prevention system (IPS), a major food item, rose from KRW 20.6 billion to KRW 25.2 billion.

Fasoo, the No. 1 company in digital copyright management (DRM), JiranSecurity, the No. 1 company in email integrated security solutions, and Raon Secure, a certification and cyber security company, did not have a very bright first half.

Paso and Raon Secure turned to a deficit in addition to a 2% drop in sales.

Some companies are still enjoying a boom. Genians, the No. 1 company in network access control (NAC) and endpoint detection and response (EDR), and Atone, a fintech security company This is the representative.

Genians grew 19.5% and 31.5% year-on-year to 18.3 billion won in sales and 2.3 billion won in operating profit in the first half of the year. Considering that Genians enjoyed its biggest boom since its foundation last year, its business performance is also expected this year.

Atone is the fastest growing company among major cyber security companies in the first half of this year. Sales grew 48.8% year-on-year to 29.7 billion won in the first half of the year. Operating profit also rose 29.1% to KRW 4.7 billion, which is estimated to be booming as the financial sector continues to digitalize.

PioLink, which is growing rapidly with record highs in 2021 and 2022, also succeeded in sales growth of 5.3% in the first half of the year. If it continues to grow until the second half of the year, it will record its highest performance for three consecutive years.

 

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