Kbank introduced on Jan. 13 that it has submitted a securities registration assertion to the Monetary Providers Fee for itemizing on the KOSPI market and has launched into the full-scale public providing course of.
Kbank, which is the primary on-line financial institution in Korea, will elevate a complete of 60 million shares by way of this public providing. This consists of 30 million new shares and 30 million present shares on the market. The hoped-for providing value band (vary) is from 8,300 received to 9,500 received. Based mostly on the higher finish of the hoped-for providing value, the market capitalization after itemizing can be roughly 4 trillion received. The utmost public providing quantity is anticipated to achieve 570 billion received. NH Funding & Securities and Samsung Securities will function itemizing lead underwriters, with Shinhan Securities collaborating as a part of the underwriting syndicate.
Kbank chosen main home and worldwide web banks as comparable firms to calculate an inexpensive hoped-for providing value. Kakao Financial institution domestically and Japan’s web financial institution Rakuten Financial institution had been chosen as comparable firms, and all of them are increasing their buyer base and enterprise basis by way of a Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) mannequin that gives banking providers or infrastructure to companion firms based mostly on non-face-to-face operations.
Based mostly on such comparable firm choice, Kbank’s hoped-for providing value was set at a degree of 1.38-1.56 occasions based mostly on price-to-book ratio (PBR), reflecting market expectations and lowered by roughly 20% in comparison with the earlier public providing timepoint. Beforehand, Kbank offered an providing value band of 9,500 received to 12,000 received throughout its second preliminary public providing (IPO) problem in 2023.
Kbank plans to place extra effort into training modern finance and inclusive finance with funds secured by way of this public providing. Particularly, it plans to develop funding in entry into the small and medium enterprise (SME) market, strengthening technological differentiation, establishing platform enterprise basis, and coming into new companies resembling digital belongings.
Kbank is anticipated to turn into the primary KOSPI itemizing firm of this 12 months. After conducting demand forecasting concentrating on home and worldwide institutional buyers from Feb. 4-10 to finalize the providing value, public subscription can be carried out for 2 days on Feb. 20 and 23. The scheduled itemizing date is March 5.
Established in 2016, Kbank is Korea’s first internet-only financial institution, offering numerous monetary services based mostly on non-face-to-face operations. As of the top of the primary half of final 12 months, complete belongings had been 29.532 trillion received, and fairness capital was 2.182 trillion received. After attaining its first annual revenue in 2021, it recorded a record-high web revenue of 128.1 billion received in 2024. Based mostly on the primary half of final 12 months, web revenue was 84.2 billion received, sustaining a progress development.
That is Kbank’s third problem at an IPO. Beforehand, after submitting preliminary examinations with the alternate in 2022 and 2023 and receiving approval, it withdrew the itemizing, citing deteriorating circumstances and poor institutional demand forecasting. Since Kbank set the IPO deadline for July of this 12 months through the funding attraction course of, there’s a excessive chance that this would be the closing itemizing problem.
A Kbank official mentioned, “We plan to speculate public providing funds in securing capital adequacy, increasing SME market entry, strengthening technological management, establishing platform enterprise basis, and coming into new companies to place extra effort into training modern finance and inclusive finance,” including, “We’ll obtain recognition for correct company worth by way of thorough preparation.”
