Korea’s No. 2 art auction house to go public in Jan

K Auction, South Korea’s No. 2 art auction house, is set to go public in January 2022 as it aims to court the domestic leader Seoul Auction Co.

K Auction said it filed on Dec. 15 a registration statement to the Financial Supervisory Service for listing of 1.6 million shares on the junior Kosdaq. The auction house proposed a price band between 17,000 won and 20,000 won ($14.4 and $16.9) per share to raise up to 32 billion won.

It was scheduled to hold bookbuilding for institutional investors on Jan. 6-7 and public subscription for retail investors on Jan. 12-13. Shinyoung Securities is managing the initial public offering.

The domestic art market enjoyed a boom in 2021 with a record high of artworks auction deals. As of Dec. 14, 307 billion won worth of artworks have been sold through auctions so far this year, nearly trebling 115.3 billion won in 2020 and far exceeding the previous record of 219.4 billion won logged in 2018. K Auction has sold more than 120 billion won in artworks, an all-time high, so far this year.

Seoul Auction, the country’s oldest art auction house founded in 1998, and K Auction, established in 2005, have been dominating the market. Seoul Auction accounted for 48% of the domestic artworks auction sector, followed by K Auction with a 42% market share. Seoul Auction leads the offline auction market, selling more expensive works, while K Auction is stronger in the online market.

The IPO is unlikely to change the landscape of the country’s art auction sector immediately, industry sources said.

Seoul Auction’s stocks, listed on the Kosdaq in 2008, closed at 28,550 won on Dec. 16, about quadruple 7,440 won at the end-2020. Its market capitalization stood at 483 billion won, far more than double K Auction’s estimated market value of up to 178.2 billion won.

Write to Soo-Young Seong at syoung@hankyung.com
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.