Lee Jaehwan, CEO of One Store, "No Withdrawal of IPO... True Value Will Be Revealed in Difficult Market Conditions"

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Hyowon] “In a challenging market, the wheat will be separated from the chaff. It is unfortunate that our affiliate SK Shieldus withdrew its IPO, but since it operates in a different industry from One Store and we believe in our growth potential, we plan to continue pushing forward with the listing.”

Lee Jaehwan, CEO of One Store.
Photo by Jang Hyowon

On the 9th, Lee Jaehwan, CEO of One Store, expressed these views regarding SK Shieldus's IPO withdrawal and One Store's future listing plans at a press conference for the KOSPI listing held in Yeouido, Seoul.

CEO Lee explained, “The current desired public offering price is considered appropriate as we applied a 30-40% discount after changing the comparable companies,” adding, “Last year, strategic investors such as Microsoft also invested at around 40,000 KRW per share.”

One Store was established in 2016 by integrating the app markets of the three major telecom companies and Naver’s app store. It focuses on distributing mobile content such as games and apps, and operates comprehensive story content businesses, gaming, and IT device commerce. Its app market transaction volume is 1.1 trillion KRW, securing the second-largest market share domestically.

One Store’s first growth strategy is cross-platform services. Moving beyond mobile limitations, One Store is keeping pace with the cross-play trend that allows simultaneous use on mobile and PC, and last year, it provided 73 services through a platform called One Game Loop in partnership with Tencent.

Additionally, it plans to explore collaboration opportunities for distributing One Store games on Windows 11 with its shareholder Microsoft. Furthermore, to promote its in-app advertising business, it plans to open the ‘One Store Advertising Center’ in the third quarter of this year.

CEO Lee emphasized, “One Store has completed building a global service platform and is localizing according to target markets. We hold competitive advantages in commission fees and K-content intellectual property (IP), which can be strengths in the global market.”

At the end of last year, One Store recorded consolidated sales of 214.2 billion KRW and an operating loss of 5.8 billion KRW. While sales increased by 38% compared to the previous year, operating losses expanded by about 500%. However, One Store stated that business profits, after applying costs to each business unit, are being generated. The operating loss was due to common costs such as company acquisition expenses incurred last year.

CEO Lee said, “Business profits increased by 62% over four years from 6.1 billion KRW in 2018 to 26 billion KRW last year, while common costs rose by 19% from 19 billion KRW to 31.7 billion KRW during the same period, meaning the growth rate of business profits is higher than that of costs,” adding, “Next year, business profits are expected to exceed common costs, enabling a return to profitability.” According to the company, One Store expects about 5 billion KRW in operating profit next year.

Finally, CEO Lee confidently stated, “Today’s One Store is a company that has secured a market share of 1.1 trillion KRW in a domestic market worth 7.5 trillion KRW, but the future One Store will be a platform competing in a global market worth 300 trillion KRW.”

Meanwhile, One Store is offering a total of 6.66 million shares in the public offering, of which 29%, or 1.935 million shares, are existing shares. The desired public offering price ranges from 34,300 to 41,700 KRW, and the post-listing company valuation is 1.1111 trillion KRW based on the upper limit. Demand forecasting is underway until the 10th, with general subscription scheduled for the 12th and 13th. The lead underwriters are NH Investment & Securities and KB Securities, with SK Securities as a joint underwriter. Hana Financial Investment and Daishin Securities are participating as underwriting companies.

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