Published : Oct. 22, 2021 - 18:34
A promotional photo of Kakao Pay (Kakao Pay)
South Korean mobile payment app operator Kakao Pay has priced its initial public offering at 90,000 won ($76.60) per share, at the top end of its indicative price range of 60,000-90,000 won, the company said in a regulatory filing Friday.
Kakao Pay, a 55:45 joint venture of internet giant Kakao Corp. and China’s Ant Group, wrapped up its book building on Thursday. While institutional investors placed their bids to obtain new shares for the IPO, a total of 1,545 domestic and overseas institutions participated. Competition among them marked 1,714 to 1.
“We would like to thank all the institutional investors who agreed with our vision and participated in the book-building process,” Kakao Pay CEO Ryu Young-joon said. “We’ll achieve sustainable growth by providing ‘customer-centric’ innovative financial services and seeking ways to coexist with financial institutions and affiliated stores.”
The financial technology firm is anticipated to raise up to 1.53 trillion won in fresh funding by floating 17 million shares on the nation’s main bourse Kospi. Meanwhile, market insiders forecast the company’s valuation after listing to reach between 7.8 trillion won and 11.7 trillion won.
Ahead of its market debut on Nov. 3, a two-day public subscription is scheduled to be held on Monday and Tuesday, while Samsung Securities, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan are serving as lead underwriters of the IPO deal. It is the first company to distribute its stock equally to all IPO subscribers.
Kakao Pay earlier aimed for an August listing, but the timeline has been delayed twice amid overvaluation issues and toughened consumer protection regulations. Upon the Financial Supervisory Service’s request to correct its prospectus, it replaced the peer companies for its company valuation and lowered its target price range from the initial 63,000-69,000 won. The company also had to overcome regulatory hurdles due to “changes in descriptions about customer services in the wake of the introduction of the Act on the Protection of Financial Consumers.”
By Jie Ye-eun (
yeeun@heraldcorp.com)