South Korea’s dominant messaging platform operator Kakao Corp. easily pulled off a $1 billion initial public offering in global depositary receipts (GDRs) as its news shares were entirely subscribed before the book-building session finished on Wednesday.

Kakao and its underwriters Citigroup and Goldman Sachs have toured cities in Asia since Monday last week for the first Korean GDR offering in three years. They will be listed on the Singapore Exchange on Feb. 3.

The offering in 7,546,520 new shares was snatched up well before the book-building session closed on Wednesday. They will be priced next Tuesday.

A GDR is a bank certificate issued in multiple countries for shares in a foreign company, and it is traded like domestic shares but can be sold globally through a foreign branch of an international bank.

At 1:00 p.m. in Seoul trading, the Kospi-listed Kakao shares were down 5 percent at 133,500 won.

The company said it chose to go public in Singapore because of its exposure to overseas investors. Listing via GDR is currently available only in Singapore, Luxembourg and London.

Kakao Talk chat app users reach 50 million monthly and it is safe to say the messaging app is used by the entire 50 million Korean population plus ethnic Koreans living overseas.

Despite its relative low brand awareness to users beyond the Korean nationals, investors focused on the company’s future growth as the social media operator is planning to use the IPO proceeds for global mergers and acquisitions and outreach beyond the online platform.

The company runs online-only bank and broad transportation services including car-hailing and chauffeur service, and navigation. It also recently turned active in the contents field based on its immense chat pool, offering e-books, cartoons, and video-on-demand streaming services.

It is prepping an IPO for its game publisher Kakao Games on the Kosdaq.

By Cho Hee-young and Cho Jeehyun

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]