Kakao Games' Subscription Overwhelmed, Surpasses 100 to 1 Ratio in Just 2 Hours

KB Securities Surpasses 200-to-1 Competition Rate... Samsung Securities Experiences MTS Delays

On the 31st of last month, individual investors were waiting for consultation on Kakao Games IPO subscription at the Korea Investment & Securities branch in Yeouido, Seoul. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Minwoo Lee] On the first day of the general public subscription for Kakao Games, considered the biggest IPO in the second half of the year, the subscription competition rate exceeded 100 to 1 from the morning of the 1st. This far surpasses SK Biopharm's first-day subscription competition rate of 61.93 to 1 (based on integrated securities firms).

The competition rate at KB Securities, the underwriter with the smallest allocation of subscription shares, surpassed 200 to 1 within about two hours of the subscription start. As of 10:20 AM that day, KB Securities reported a competition rate of 232 to 1. The subscription deposit calculated from the number of subscription shares at KB Securities was estimated to be approximately 450 billion KRW.

At Samsung Securities, the joint lead manager for the listing, the subscription volume caused system delays. The subscription service was temporarily suspended at 9:34 AM and resumed about 20 minutes later. Subscriptions started online and offline from 8 AM, but due to a large number of users on the first day, online subscriptions were temporarily halted. This caused delays in the use of the Mobile Trading System (MTS), leading to complaints from regular stock trading customers.

At Korea Investment & Securities, which was allocated the largest subscription volume, investors gathered even before the subscription started, creating scenes of lines inside the branch. Most customers were waiting to apply for subscriptions.

According to Kakao Games, in this general investor public subscription, 1.76 million shares and 1.28 million shares were allocated to the joint lead managers Korea Investment & Securities and Samsung Securities, respectively. KB Securities, the underwriter, was allocated 160,000 shares. Korea Investment & Securities started subscription services from 11 AM that day.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.