Doosan Robotics aims to draw $256 mn in IPO subscriptions

South Korea’s Doosan Robotics Inc. aims to attract an estimated 340.2 billion won ($255.8 million) in the initial public offering bookbuilding for its main Kospi debut next month amid rising expectations of a robot industry boom.

The robotics arm of Doosan Group is forecast to reach a market cap of 1.36 trillion won to 1.68 trillion won ($1 billion to $1.3 billion) after listing. After the IPO, Doosan Group will own a 68.2% stake in the robotics firm and the outstanding shares will represent 24.8%.

The indicative range is between 21,000 won and 26,000 won, based on the average price-to-earnings ratio (PER) of 38 global robotics industry firms.  

Doosan Robotics will conduct bookbuilding for institutional investors Sept. 11-15 and will receive retail subscriptions Sept. 21-22.

Some analysts reported positive outlooks on the robotics firm.

“Doosan Robotics is the fourth-largest collaborative robot maker with a 5.4% global market share excluding China. Its revenue, 45 billion won last year, will increase by 4.6 times to 252 billion won in 2026 thanks to sales growth in robot arms and robotics solutions,” said Meritz Securities Co. Research Analyst Bae Ki-yeon.

“The company will swing to surplus with an 8.7% operating profit margin in 2025 and post 14% and 28.6% of the figures in 2026 and 2027, respectively. The fair value of the share would be 29,000 won and the market cap can reach 1.9 trillion won,” Bae added.

“We are positive about the company’s potential for growth and its roadmap to achieve it,” said Yang Seung-yoon, an analyst at Eugene Investment & Securities.

But it is difficult to make meaningful comparisons with global peers as the robotics market industry has a relatively short history, Yang added.

Some publicly traded robotics stocks in Korea have been by buoyed by high expectations for the robotics industry.

Shares of robotics system engineering firm Rainbow Robotics, having the eighth-largest market cap on the junior Kosdaq, closed at 212,500 won on Monday, around 2.3 times the closing price two months ago. Collaborative robotics maker Neuromeka closed at 42,800 won on Monday, rising 47% over the past two months.

Write to Eunhyeok Ryu at ehryu@hankyung.com

Jihyun Kim edited this article.