South Koreas’ top mobile game developer Netmarble Games Corp. embarked on administrative process to go public on the nation’s main bourse late this year or early next year.
The game company applied for the preliminary review for initial public offering to the Korea Exchange (KRX) on Friday in hopes to ready debut by early next year at the latest. The industry estimates the company’s market capitalization after IPO at around 10 trillion won ($9.5 billion), beating its rival NCsoft Corp. worth 6.45 trillion won. Netmarble Games founder and senior advisor Bang Jun-hyuk announced at a press briefing in February that the game maker would go public within the year or early next year to secure funds for merger and acquisition, global marketing and investments for future businesses.
The company rode on the mobile game boom with blockbuster titles like Everybody’s Marble and Seven Knights. The company posted 225.3 billion won in operating profit and 1.07 trillion won in revenue on a consolidated basis last year, surpassing 1 trillion won in annual sales for the first time. The company plans to unveil mobile game Lineage2: revolution in the second half.
The debut of a large-cap software stock will likely add impetus to the local stock market along with another heavy entry by Doosan Bobcat.
The result of the preliminary IPO review is expected to come out within 45 trading days.
By Park Yun-gu
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