Korea Small Cap Gem #35: Aurora World

• Aurora World is best known for its plush toys (Palm Pals and YooHoo & Friends). It is increasingly trying to leverage its toy character brands to expand into digital contents.

• What makes Aurora World so interesting is its excellent fundamentals and deeply discounted valuations relative to The Pinkfong Company (IPO in 2H25) and SAMG Entertainment.

• Aurora World generated more than 80% of its sales in overseas markets including the United States, U.K., and Hong Kong.

YooHoo to the Rescue (Source: Netflix, Youtube)

Aurora World - Valuation Comparisons to The Pinkfong Company and SAMG Entertainment

In 2H 2025, one of the highly publicized IPOs in Korea will likely be The Pinkfong Company, which owns the well known Baby Shark and Pinkfong character brands. Although, the IPO valuation of The Pinkfong Company has yet to be revealed, it was last valued at more than 1 trillion won in 2021.

Aurora World (039830 KS) is one of the competitors to The Pinkfong Company in Korea in the animation characters and toy businesses. As The Pinkfong Company gets ready to complete its IPO in Korea in 2H 2025, there will likely be increasing focus on its other Korean competitors including Aurora World.

What makes Aurora World so interesting is its excellent fundamentals and deeply discounted valuations. For example, The Pinkfong Company generated sales of 97.4 billion won and operating profit of 18.8 billion won in 2024. If we assume a valuation of 500 billion won to 1 trillion won for The Pinkfong Company, this would suggest P/OP of 26.6x to 53.2x, respectively.

In comparison, Aurora World generated sales of 275.7 billion won and operating profit of 31 billion won in 2024. Aurora World's sales and operating profit were 183% and 65% higher, respectively than The Pinkfong Company in 2024.

Although the estimated valuation of The Pinkfong Company has yet to be revealed, it is expected to be much higher than Aurora World which currently has a valuation of only 69 billion won. Aurora World is trading at P/OP of only 2.2x using operating profit of 31 billion won in 2024. In other words, if The Pinkfong Company is valued at 500 billion won to 1 trillion won or more, its P/OP valuation would be more than 15-30x higher than Aurora World.

Another listed competitor to The Pinkfong Company and Aurora World is SAMG Entertainment (419530 KS) whose share price is up more than 560% in the past one year. SAMG Entertainment's market cap has risen to 660 billion won. It generated sales of 116 billion won and operating loss of 6.1 billion won in 2024.

The consensus estimates SAMG to generate sales of 143.7 billion won and operating profit of 21.5 billion won in 2025. So based on the estimated operating profit of 21.5 billion won, SAMG's P/OP would be 30.7x, which would also be much higher than Aurora World's valuation multiples.

SAMG Entertainment is one of the largest 3D animation production companies in Korea. It is a co-producer of Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Catnoir, which has been very popular in Europe and Latin America. The company's own children animation related IPs such as Mini Force, Catch!Teenieping, and Super Dino which have been popular as well.

SAMG has been expanding its business areas using its IP lineup, such as toys, character licensing, global distribution, and theater/OTT distribution based on its know-how in the kids content IP business. See our insight SAMG Entertainment IPO Preview for further details.

Aurora World Company Background

Headquartered in South Korea, Aurora World (039830 KS) is one of the global leaders in the plush toy industry. Aurora is best known for its premium plush toys and globally recognized characters, including “YooHoo & Friends,” which gained international popularity and was later adapted into animated media.

Founded in 1981, Aurora World began as a small plush toy manufacturer in South Korea. In its early years, the company focused primarily on OEM for Western toy and giftware brands. By the 1990s, Aurora began developing its own intellectual property (IP) and character designs, which significantly transformed its business model from OEM to brand-based operations.

In 1992, Aurora expanded its operations to the U.S. with the establishment of Aurora World Inc. (USA), marking the beginning of its global expansion. In 1996, it founded Aurora World UK Ltd, and in 1998 it opened Aurora World Hong Kong, further consolidating its international sales network.