Krafton Inc., the Korean gaming startup behind superhit mobile game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), is set to go public in July as it filed for its IPO on the KOSPI on June 16. Krafton’s IPO (Initial Public Offering) will raise as much as $5 billion or 5.6 trillion won, and likely to be the country’s largest ever public issue, exceeding the previous record of 4.8 trillion won of Samsung Life IPO.
The gaming company plans to sell more than 10 million shares for 458,000 won to 557,000 won ($400-$500) per share, Krafton said at the filing. 7.03 million new shares and 303,230 existing ones will be offered to entities and individuals with special relationships.
Subscription opens in July second week
The Korean gaming company is scheduled to hold a two-week book-building session for institutional investors from June 28 through July 7. It plans to accept public subscriptions on July 14 and 15. Mirae Asset Securities is the lead manager overseeing the process with co-hosts Credit Suisse, NH Investment & Securities, Citigroup Global Market Security, and JP Morgan, while Samsung Securities is the underwriter. Krafton will allow public subscriptions at multiple brokerage houses registered with the Korea Exchange (KRX) before June 18. This move is expected to bring in record-breaking deposits.
The expected capital between 4.6 trillion won and 5.6 trillion won will make Krafton the largest gaming company in South Korea. Its market capitalization is expected to increase between $20 billion (23 trillion won) and $25 billion (29 trillion won), surpassing the current leader NCsoft which has a market capitalization of $16 billion or 18.6 trillion won, followed by Netmarble and Kakao Games.
Krafton reported $412 million or 461 billion won in sales in the first quarter of 2021, with an operating profit of $202 million or 227.2 billion won. Its overseas sales accounted for 94 percent of the total at $392 million or 439 billion won. Krafton had launched “Battlegrounds” for PCs and consoles in 2017 and sold more than 70 million copies. The success led to the mobile version launch, which saw over 1 billion global downloads in April 2021.
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