Naver Announces $745M Treasury Stock Buyback Amid Fintech Pivot

Naver Corp., South Korea's dominant internet company, is planning to repurchase approximately 1 trillion won (about $745 million) in treasury stock. This significant move indicates that management believes its valuation is undervalued and may be signaling a shift towards more aggressive financial engineering.

This isn't the first time Naver has engaged in share buybacks; it previously planned to purchase and cancel shares worth 400 billion won (about $306 million) in 2024, and executed a smaller buyback of 1.64 million shares valued at approximately 305.3 billion won.

The company's CEO has been buying stock with their own funds, purchasing 700 million won worth of shares, which tends to grab investors' attention when the person running the company is putting their personal money on the table.

Naver Financial, a subsidiary, is set to merge with Dunamu, operator of Upbit, one of South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchanges. The all-stock integration deal has a transaction value of around 15.1 trillion won (about $10 billion) and was initially expected to close by 2025 but has been pushed back due to regulatory complications.