Kakao Games sets new IPO record with 58.55 trillion won in subscription deposits

Kakao Games Corp.'s initial public offering (IPO) drew subscription deposits of 58.55 trillion won after being oversubscribed 1,524.85 times to set South Korean records for both subscription deposit and rate for new shares, Wednesday.

Lead underwriter Korea Investment & Securities Co. noted that the figures way exceeded SK Biopharmaceuticals's record for IPO subscription deposits of 30.99 trillion won and oversubscription of 323 times.

Kakao Games will sell 16 million shares through its upcoming debut on the KOSDAQ market, with 20 percent, or 3.2 million, earmarked to individual investors.

The new shares would be priced between 20,000 won and 24,000 won.

But market analysts projected that the stock can go up as high as 62,400 won, nearly triple of its IPO price on its debut.

The gaming affiliate of Kakao Corp. hopes to raise between 320 billion won and 384 billion won via the IPO, which would be invested in developing a lineup of new games.

Investors gave weight to the namesake value of its parent Kakao Corp., which operates the country's most-used mobile messenger KakaoTalk, owns a 58.96 percent stake in Kakao Games.

Kakao Games has been broadening its presence across Asia since its inception in April 2016 and now has over 45 million monthly active users.

In the first half, Kakao Games posted an operating profit of 28.7 billion won, up 63.7 percent from a year earlier.

It had an operating profit of 35 billion won on sales of 391 billion won in 2019.