The IPO is anticipated to be one of many greatest Korean listings this yr, Seoul-based analysts mentioned, with over-the-counter trades on Thursday valuing Krafton at round 20 trillion gained ($17.92 billion).
Krafton founder Chang Byung-gyu is the most important shareholder with a 16.4% stake as of end-2020, adopted by China’s Tencent holding a 15.5% stake by way of an funding firm. Small shareholders with lower than 1% stake individually held a mixed 23.2% of Krafton, in accordance with an organization submitting.
PUBG is among the highest-grossing video video games of all time, with as much as 55 million every day customers excluding China on weekends and 70 million copies of the sport bought for PC and recreation consoles, Krafton mentioned. Upcoming new cellular recreation “PUBG: New State” gained greater than 5 million pre-registrations inside every week, Krafton mentioned in March.
Krafton reported income of 1.67 trillion gained and working revenue of 774 billion gained in 2020, Korea Trade mentioned in an announcement.
The principle adviser for the IPO is Mirae Asset Daewoo, whereas different advisers are Credit score Suisse, Citigroup International Markets, Korea Funding & Securities, JP Morgan and NH Funding & Securities.
Sturdy investor demand has fuelled a flurry of sizable listings in South Korea this yr.
An IPO by vaccine developer SK Bioscience Co. Ltd final month was the most important in Seoul in almost 4 years, whereas battery part developer SK IE Know-how’s deliberate IPO is anticipated to be value no less than $1.5 billion.
Reuters’ Scott Murdoch in Hong Kong contributed to this story.