Strong debut for South Korea's Netmarble Games after mega IPO (updated)

Netmarble

12/05/2017 01:33

* S.Korea's 2nd-largest IPO ever 
    * Proven ability to release continuous hits-analysts 
    * War chest of $4.4 bln for acquisitions-company 
 
 (Adds analyst quote, game releases, share supply, M&A plan) 
    SEOUL, May 12 (Reuters) - Shares in Netmarble Games Corp 
 251270.KS  debuted as much as 9 percent higher on Friday, as 
investors sought to buy into the success of the smartphone games 
maker which last month raised $2.3 billion in South Korea's 
second-largest initial public offering. 
    The stock opened at 165,000 won ($146.65), some 5 percent 
higher than the IPO price of 157,000 won, rising to as high as 
9.2 percent in early trade. The KOSPI index  .KS11  was down 0.3 
percent as of 0025 GMT.  
    Netmarble has lured investors in the crowded gaming market 
by steadily churning out hits. 
    Its role-playing game "Lineage II: Revolution" became the 
world's best-selling mobile game in February even though it is 
only available in South Korea, while subsequent release 
"PentaStorm" is the most popular game on Google Android's South 
Korea store as of Friday.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1HP24E 
    A shortage of tradeable shares is also helping support the 
stock, brokers said. 
    About 17.6 million shares out of 84.7 million total are 
available for trade, with the rest - almost all owned by 
controlling and strategic shareholders such as Netmarble founder 
Bang Jun-hyuk and Tencent Holdings  0700.HK  - in a six-month 
lock-up. 
    "Compared to other Asian game developers such as Mixi 
 2121.T  or GungHo  3765.T  that have not had a notable 
follow-up after they released mega-hit games, Netmarble has 
steadily released hits," said Shinyoung Securities analyst Jang 
Won-yeol.  
    Netmarble said in April it expects to have a war chest of 
some $4.4 billion for acquisitions after the listing to realise 
its goal of becoming one of world's top five games companies by 
2020 with 5 trillion won in annual revenue.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1HW12Y 
    The company had priced its April IPO at the top of an 
indicative range.  
    ($1 = 1,125.1600 won) 
 
 (Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Miral Fahmy) 
 ((jungyoon.lee@thomsonreuters.com; +82 2 3704 5609; Reuters 
Messaging: jungyoon.lee.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: NETMARBLE LISTING/