Krafton plans to raise $5 billion in South Korea’s biggest IPO

UPDATE (June 28, 2021): Krafton’s $5 bn IPO could be delayed for up to two weeks, sources said

UPDATE (July 1, 2021): Krafton cuts IPO target to $3.8 bn in revised registration statement

South Korean video game holding company Krafton announced plans to raise $5 billion in an initial public offering which is expected to be the biggest IPO in the country. 

Earlier this year, we wrote about Krafton’s plans to go public in mid-2021. The PUBG-maker applied for preliminary approval in April and now has filed to raise as much as 5.6 trillion won, selling over 10 million shares (7 million new shares and 3 million existing shares) at 458,000 won to 557,000 won per share, Bloomberg reported. This could value Krafton at 28 trillion won, or $25 billion. 

The company plans to finalize the price for shares by July 9 and the listing is expected to take place on July 22. 

First launched in 2017, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile surpassed one billion downloads in March this year. 

Also Read: PUBG Mobile Revenue and Usage Statistics

Apart from PUBG Mobile, the company now has two new titles which are PUBG: New State and Battlegrounds Mobile India. 

While PUBG: New State hasn’t been launched yet, users are able to pre-register for the game on both Play Store and App Store. The title surpassed 5 million pre-registrations within just a week.

In 2020, India banned PUBG Mobile as well as 117 other Chinese apps due to national security concerns. Last month, Krafton announced that it’s bringing PUBG Mobile back to India under the name of ‘Battlegrounds Mobile India’. While millions of users are waiting for the official launch of the new title, an Indian politician requested a new ban for PUBG’s replacement. 

Recently, Krafton announced that it invested $22.4 million in Indian esports company Nodwin Gaming.