HD Hyundai Marine IPO sees strong demand from retail investors

South Korea’s HD Hyundai Marine Solution Co. has attracted billions of dollars from retail investors in subscription deposits for the ship maintenance service provider’s initial public offering.

Its public market debut, forecast to be the biggest local IPO in the first half of the year, drew investors on expectations of its shares' stability amid market volatilities and a possibility of inclusion of the stock in the MSCI Korea Index, market insiders said.

The company, a unit of shipbuilding giant HD Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., received 25 trillion won ($18.2 billion) from individual investors during the April 25-26 public subscriptions, according to banking sources on Friday.

With the offer price of 83,400 won, the company attracted 1.04 million retail investors for 2.35 million shares. The average competition ratio for the public subscription was 256 to 1.

Some 45% of the retail investors have agreed to a lock-up clause, promising not to sell the stock during the 15-180-day period after the IPO. The percentage of individual investors agreeing to the clause is the highest in local IPOs so far this year.

The subscription competition rate of the company’s employee stock ownership association reached 92.8%.

Retail investors bet on the probability of passive fund inflow to the shares like EcoPro Materials Co., sources said.

The battery materials producer, which drew tepid interest from institutional investors before listing last November, saw its stock price treble from its offering price of 36,200 won as it was included in the MSCI Korea Index in February.

As the company with around 4 trillion won of market cap successfully attracted investors’ interest, some big companies eyeing IPOs such as K Bank, Shift Up Corp., Seoul Guarantee Insurance Co. and DN Solutions Ltd. are expected to accelerate their listing process on the main Kospi.

K Bank, the digital banking unit of telecom giant KT Corp., will file a preliminary review application to Korea Exchange for its listing in the second half of this year.

DN Solutions, a semiconductor equipment manufacturer, has tapped a lead IPO manager and prepared for its market debut. Seoul Guarantee Insurance, which dropped its IPO plan last year, is set to reattempt listing in the second half of this year.  

Write to Jeong-Cheol Bae and Seok-Cheol Choi at bjc@hankyung.com

Jihyun Kim edited this article.