Many ‘big fish’ companies are expected go public starting from next month. Major IPO REITs called ‘Homeplus REITs’, which has more than $3.58 billion (4 trillion KRW) in asset, and Hyundai Motor Group’s SI (System Integration) company called Hyundai-AutoEver are expected to be listed on KOSPI in March. Mirae Asset Venture Investment is also preparing to be listed on KOSDAQ.
Performance of this year’s IPO (Initial Public Offering) market can be estimated depending on performance of companies that are preparing to go public next month.
Korea Retail Investment Management, which is an asset management company that manages Homeplus REITs, announced that ‘Homeplus REITs’ is going to be listed on stock market on the 29th of March.
REITs is a type of a fund that has real estate as an asset. Unlike other public offering funds, it can be easily traded within stock markets. Homeplus REITs is based on 51 markets out of 81 markets owned by Homeplus and Homeplus Stores and it annually distributes profits made from rents and others. It is the first major REITs to make an appearance within South Korea’s real estate investment market and its real estate is worth $3.84 billion (4.3 trillion KRW).
Homeplus REITs’ goal is to make a public offering up to $1.55 billion (1.73 trillion KRW) by being listed on KOSPI. Amount of this public offering is 10 times more than that of Shinhan Alpha REIT ($102 million) and E REITs ($70.6 million) that already went public before Homeplus REITs. It is also the biggest amount since Netmarble went public in 2017. It will be listed on the 29th after going through demand estimation by the 13th and subscription from the 18th until the 20th.
“Homeplus REITs has the best investment competitive edge compared to other similar globally-listed REITs.” said CEO Koo Young-woo of Korea Retail Investment Management. “Global investors with plenty of liquidity will trust Homeplus REITs and invest in it since it can be incorporated into global REITs index.”
Hyundai-AutoEver will be listed on KOSPI on the 28th of March. Its stock costs between $35.76 and $39.34 (40,000 KRW and 44,000 KRW) and it will offer 3.51 million stocks for public subscription. Total estimated amount for public subscription is going to be up to $134 million (150 billion KRW) and it is estimated that market capitalization will be around $826 million (924 billion KRW) afterwards. It will carry out demand estimation on the 13th and the 14th of next month and subscription on the 19th and the 20th.
DREAMTECH, a cellphone electronic part manufacturer that delayed going public due to lack of public subscription last year, is going to try again next month.
KOSDAQ is also expected to have many ‘big fish’ companies such as Mirae Asset Venture Investment, which is a venture capital subsidiary of Mirae Asset Group, and others to be listed one after the other. Mirae Asset Venture Investment has started demand estimation on the 27th. It is going to finalize price for the offering after going through subscription on the 7th and the 8th and decide on when it is going to be listed on KOSDAQ. Size of Mirae Asset Venture Investment’s public offering is going to be around $17.9 million (20 billion KRW) at the maximum.
Reason why many companies are pushing for IPO is because companies that were listed on KOSDAQ previously have made performance greater than expectations. Webcash, YBTOUR, InnoTherapy, Chunbo, and Cellid that were newly listed on KOSDAQ in 2019 have all succeeded in their public subscriptions. Average subscription competition rate for these five companies was 754 to 1. Webcash, which pushed for the first IPO in 2019, recorded 1071 to 1 subscription competition rate and raised expectations.
“While IPO market had been stagnant in 2018, it is expected to be active in 2019.” said a representative for a stock firm. “Depending on performance of IPO that will be carried out in March, other ‘big fish’ companies that are preparing to be listed will also start to make follow-up measures.”
Staff Reporter Ryu, Geunil | ryuryu@etnews.com