[South Korea's Crypto Legislation Delay Drags NAVER Merger Process, DS Securities Lowers Target Price to 300,000 KRW] According to Deep Tide TechFlow on April 14, The Asia Business Daily reported that DS Investment Securities released a research report, lowering NAVER's target stock price to 300,000 KRW while maintaining a 'Buy' rating. Analyst Choi Seung-ho noted that the downgrade was primarily based on two factors: first, NAVER's operating profit margin for this year is expected to drop from 18.3% to 17.6%, with advertising, e-commerce marketing expenses, and depreciation costs continuing to rise; second, the slow progress of crypto asset-related legislation is directly impacting the merger plan between NAVER Financial and Dunamu, with the originally scheduled September completion potentially facing further delays. Previously, DS Securities had assigned a 15 trillion KRW valuation to the crypto business in its SOTP valuation, but this portion has been removed in the latest report. Choi Seung-ho also stated that the e-commerce business remains NAVER's core growth driver for the future, with annual e-commerce sales expected to reach approximately 2.7 trillion KRW.