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[Alpha Biz=(Chicago) Reporter Kim Jisun] Kakao's execution of CAPEX (Capital expenditures) in the third quarter of this year has shifted to a decline in three years.
According to Kakao's quarterly report on the 15th, the company spent 154.4 billion won on CAPEX in the third quarter of this year. The figure is down 17.3 percent from a year earlier. Looking at Kakao's facility investment trends over the past three years (2021-2023), Kakao has been carrying out CAPEX on a small scale in the first quarter of each year, and has continued to expand investment in the second and fourth quarters. Investment has also been expanding every year, and this trend has been cut off in the third quarter of this year. It is the first time that the size of CAPEX has decreased compared to the previous year since the first quarter of 2020 (42.6 billion won, 16.5%↓).
CAPEX is the cost that a company invests in advance to generate future profits. CAPEX expenditure means the size of the company's investment. It is used as an indicator to estimate the investment capacity and situation of the company.
The industry believes that Kakao's decline in CAPEX was affected by allegations of SM market price manipulation and high-intensity investigations into major executives.
However, the existing data center construction project will continue without a hitch. Kakao plans to invest 424.9 billion won from 2021 to 2029 to build a data center.
AlphaBIZ 김지선(stockmk2020@alphabiz.co.kr)
