April 24, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] South Korean mobile game giant Netmarble Games is out to raise as much as 2.66 trillion won (US$2.4 billion) in an initial public offering as it seeks new capital to fund its continued global expansion.

Netmarble said on March 20 that it has submitted a securities report to the Financial Services Commission to sell 16.95 million shares at 121,000 won to 157,000 won apiece. The shares are to be listed on Korea’s main bourse Kospi.

The final share pricing will be set on April 24, after which the shares will go on sale for two days from April 25-26, according to the company. 

If the shares are priced at the top of the scheduled price range, Netmarble’s market value would reach around 13.3 trillion won, according to market watchers. 

Netmarble’s IPO could also potentially become the country’s second-largest to date, following the 4.9 trillion won public listing of Samsung Life Insurance in 2010. 

Netmarble is the world’s ninth-largest game publisher in terms of in-app sales, according to app analytics firm App Annie. It specializes in mobile games, releasing hit titles such as “Lineage II: Revolution,” “Everybody’s Marble,” “Seven Knights” and “Marvel Future Fight” in global markets.

Its mobile role-playing game “Lineage II: Revolution,” released in Korea last December, raked in some 206 million won in the first month of its launch.

Netmarble said it will use the funds generated by the IPO toward new mergers and acquisitions. The firm has already made such moves, acquiring US game maker Kabam’s Vancouver studio last year and puzzle game developer SGN, now named Jam City, in 2015. 

The upcoming IPO will be carried out by lead managers JP Morgan Chase & Co. and NH Investment & Securities and managers Korea Investment and Securities Co. and Citigroup.

By Sohn Ji-young/The Korea Herald (jys@heraldcorp.com)