(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions
expressed are her own.)
By Sharon Lam
HONG KONG, April 30 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Content giants
have lapped up Japanese storytelling, spurring on Korean
“webtoon” makers. Kakao Entertainment’s boss reckons the unit
might be worth $18 bln in an IPO. Compatriot Naver is eyeing a
similar course. The fast-growing, quirky genre could draw up
creative valuations.
Full view will be published shortly.
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CONTEXT NEWS
- South Korea’s Naver is considering a possible U.S. listing
of its web cartoon unit, the company’s Chief Financial Officer
Park Sang-jin told Bloomberg in an interview published on April
21.
- Kakao Entertainment is also considering New York as a
listing venue for an initial public offering that could value it
at more than 20 trillion won ($17.8 billion), Chief Executive
Lee Jin-soo told the news agency earlier in April. The business
is a unit of listed parent Kakao.
- For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can
click on LAM/
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Kakao merger announcement https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/launch-of-kakao-entertainment-through-strategic-merger-of-kakao-page-and-kakao-m-301213691.html
Bloomberg story https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-12/korean-digital-comics-firm-eyes-u-s-ipo-after-coupang-s-success?sref=BC9wjhQl
BREAKINGVIEWS-Japanese animation draws rich cast of characters
urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2KG0V7
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| Editing by Una Galani and Katrina Hamlin)
((sharon.lam@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging:
sharon.lam.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))