S.Korean companies in renewed push for Kosdaq listings

South Korean companies are making renewed pushes to go public this year even at the expense of reduced IPO values.

Zaram Technology Inc., a chip design company for communications devices, filed a registration statement last week to list on the junior Kosdaq market.

It was its third attempt to list on the domestic stock market after shelving the plan in October and December of last year due to subdued market sentiment. It won preliminary IPO approval last year.

To go forward with the IPO, Zaram cut its market capitalization estimate by 23% to 99.2 billion to 124 billion won ($80 million-$100 million). It will sell only new shares for the listing.

Now that its existing shareholders agree to a mandatory holding period, its free float will decrease to 14% from the initially planned 25%.

A contract research company Bioinfra and a battery material supplier Jeio will proceed with IPOs next month as well.

Bioinfra cut its projected market value by about a quarter to 86.3 billion to 100.7 billion won.

Jeio trimmed its market value estimate by up to 37% to 313.6 billion to 407.7 billion won since it slashed the number of shares available for trading by half to 4 million shares.

Its existing shareholders agreed on a lock-in period, reducing its free float to 26.5% from the planned 37.5%.

Despite such a drastic cut in their IPO size, stock market watchers remain skeptical about the upcoming IPOs. They said the postponement of their IPOs last year will continue to weigh on investor sentiment.

A string of high-profile companies such as food delivery platform Kurly Inc., screen golf operator Golfzon Country and game developer Lionheart Studio Co. put on hold their IPOs scheduled for last year.

Write to Seok-Cheol Choi at dolsoi@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article