PUBG’s Game Developer Krafton Goes Public Billion Dollar IPO

Krafton Goes Public. Tecent is shareholder.

One of the biggest Korean listings of the year is under process as the game developer behind PUBG has decided to go public. Krafton Inc. is the developer of the astronomically popular game PlayerUnknown’s BattleGrounds (PUBG). Earlier this month Krafton Inc. applied for preliminary approval for an IPO, news confirmed by Korean Exchange.

Krafton Inc IPO is expected to be one of the biggest listings in the Korean Exchange this year. According to a Seoul-based Analyst, over-the-counter trades for this listing were valuing the game developer behind PUBG at more than 20 trillion won which is roughly $17.92 billion.

Yes, Tencent is also shareholder

As for the shareholder details, Krafton’s founder Chang Byung –Gyu is the largest shareholder with a 16.4% stake. The second major stakeholder is China’s Tencent Holding with a 15.5% stake. Rest is small shareholders who account for less than 1% individually and when combined accounts for 23.2%.

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PUBG is on a roll

PUBG enjoys massive success throughout the world and is the highest-grossing video game of all time. Daily concurrent users on PUBG are more than 55 million and this figure excludes Mainland China. Moreover, the upcoming new game PUBG: New State has recorded a mammoth 5 million pre-registrations in a week.

Korean Exchange also shared some details about the game developer behind PUBG reported revenue in 2020 which amounts to 1.67 trillion won and an operating profit of 774 billion won.

As for the IPO adviser, Mirae Asset Daewoo is the main adviser, and Credit Suisse, Citigroup Global Markets, Korea Investments & Securities, NH Investments & Securities, and JP Morgan are secondary advisers.

Some other notable IPOs in Korean Exchange lately are SK Bioscience Co Ltd was the biggest IPO in Seoul, the company is in the vaccine development business. While SK IE Technology’s upcoming IPO is expected to be at least $1.5 billion.