Stocks of Incross, South Korea’s third largest media representation firm, soared 26 percent in morning trading on news it has been partially acquired by SK Telecom.

The country’s top telecommunications giant bought a 34.78 percent stake in Incross from NHH Entertainment for 53.5 billion won ($46.9 million), according to a regulatory filing by Incross. NHN had previously snapped up the shares from Stone Bridge Capital in 2017. 

Incross was listed on the secondary Kosdaq market in October 2016. The firm recorded 225.9 billion won revenue through  advertisements in 2018, with an operating profit of 11.1 billion won.

With the acquisition, SKT hopes to adapt to the rapidly changing digital ad market trends, while applying information and communications technology to increase synergies with its media, commerce and other existing business wings, according to KB Securities analyst Lim Sang-kook on April 11.

“Incross’ digital media rep prowess, advanced targeting technologies and other attributes are expected to generate synergies with SKT’s contents and the expansion and technology of its 5G communications infrastructure,” Lim added.

To boost its digital advertisement capability, SKT’s archrival KT bought No. 1 digital media rep Nasmedia in 2008 and N Search Marketing from private equity firm Hahn & Co. in 2016. The advertisement industry expects to see greater deployment of new technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality in the era of 5G.

By Park Ga-young (gypark@heraldcorp.com)