K-pop fan engagement platform DearU prices IPO above range

DearU Co, a K-pop fandom platform in South Korea, priced its initial public offering above the price range on Thursday thanks to heated demand. The IPO valued the startup at 564.5 billion won ($482 million), more than four times its 2020 revenue.

The platform, backed by South Korea’s music powerhouses SM Entertainment Co. and JYP Entertainment Inc., set its IPO at 26,000 won ($22), surpassing the price band of 18,000-24,000 won, the company said in a regulatory filing.

It will be raising 85.8 billion won in the IPO on the junior Kosdaq market.

The stock was 2,000 times oversubscribed, with a majority of the 1,763 institutions bidding above the guidance during the bookbuilding process. Thirty-six percent of the bidders pledged to hold the stock between 15 days and six months, after it makes a trading debut on Nov. 10.

Established in July 2017, the company attracted K-pop fans with a paid service "bubble," a global messenger platform for communication between fans and K-pop groups. Users can exchange messages with artists anytime for a monthly subscription fee of 4,500 won. An artist talks to multiple fans, sharing selfies or photos and songs.

DearU has received investments from JYP Entertainment Inc. as well as SM Entertainment as the two Korean music labels were striving to compete against fan platform market leader Weverse, operated by the BTS agency HYBE Co.

It earned 6.6 billion won in operating profit on revenue of 18.4 billion won in the first half of this year. The January-June sales surpassed the full-year number of 13 billion won for 2020.

It will receive retail subscriptions from Nov. 1 through IPO manager Korea Investment & Securities Co.

Write to Jin-seong Kim at jskim1028@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article.