S.Korea's online K Bank withdraws plan for Kospi listing

South Korea's K Bank has withdrawn its highly anticipated plan to hold an IPO this year in the judgement of a lower corporate value due to the sluggish IPO market and the dropping share prices of the online bank's competitors.

Investment banking sources on Thursday said K Bank will soon submit an application to cancel its IPO. On Sept. 20 last year, the bank received approval in its preliminary listing evaluation but the latter said it must complete its IPO by the 20th of next month.

To woo overseas institutional investors, the bank had to have submitted by the end of last year a securities declaration. For this reason, industry pundits said the IPO has been virtually abandoned.

The lack of high corporate value was another reason for the cancellation. K Bank was once valued as high as 8 trillion won ($6.5 billion), but the figure plummeted to 3.9 trillion won on the over-the-counter market.

The stock price of competitor KakaoBank Corp. also fell below its public offering price of 39,000 won by finishing around 28,000 won.

Stock market observers say, however, that K Bank will attempt its IPO in the near future.

Write to Ye-Jin Jun at ace@hankyung.com