DN Solutions gears up for W1.6tr IPO, eyes US manufacturing push

DN Solutions, Korea’s biggest and the world's No. 3 machine tool maker by market share, has pledged to continue strengthening its US businesses as it gears up for what could be Korea’s biggest initial public offering in three years.

“DN Solutions’ market share in the US jumped to the second place from the fourth place last year,” said DN Solutions CEO Kim Won-jong in a press conference at the Conrad Seoul on Friday.

“We will turn the US tariff policies into opportunities. We want to become the strongest sponsor of the US manufacturing era.”

The CEO noted that DN Solutions will open the Chicago Technical Center next week as a part of the company’s efforts to ramp up its presence in the North American market.

“By strategically increasing the inventory in the US since the fourth quarter of last year, we have been preemptively getting ourselves ready in case of new tariff policies,” said Kim.

“Instead of rushing to establish a supply chain in the US, we are considering setting up a plant in the US after undergoing enough feasibility analysis.”

According to DN Solutions, 20 percent, 25 percent, 30 percent and 17 percent of its sales came from Korea, the US, Europe and China, respectively, in 2024, with 145 dealer networks spread out in 66 countries. Based on such a balanced sales portfolio, Kim expressed confidence in coping with the Trump administration’s tariff impositions.

DN Solutions submitted a securities registration statement to the Financial Services Commission in March as the company hoped to go public to raise capital for investment and future growth.

Some 17.5 million shares will be offered through the attempted initial public offering. The IPO could raise up to 1.6 trillion won ($1.1 billion), as the price range for each share is between 65,000 won and 89,700 won.

The company aims to complete the IPO on Kospi in May, in what could be the biggest IPO since LG Energy Solution’s IPO in 2022 if successful. DN Solutions said it plans to utilize approximately 140 billion won for automated solution businesses.

“As there is a lack of skilled engineers happening in every country, and the applications for artificial intelligence are increasing, software-equipped automated solutions for factories are becoming a must,” said Kim. “We are going to develop software that can conduct machine learning control to operate machine tools.”

The CEO mentioned the fact that DN Solutions’ annual operating profit margin was 18.9 percent on average over the past three years, emphasizing that the company has higher profitability than its competitors. DN Solutions logged 2.1 trillion won in revenue and 436.2 billion won in operating profit in 2024.

DN Automotive, a Kopsi-listed auto parts maker, acquired DN Solutions from MBK Partners at 2.4 trillion won in 2022.

According to DN Solutions, the Korean machine tool maker offered 453 different models, the biggest number of products among its competitors, at the end of last year. The company has sold over 290,000 units worldwide, with about 80 percent of them still in operation.