[Featured Stock] KakaoPay Plummets 16% Amid Deepening Woes Following Alipay Block Deal Push News

[Asia Economy Reporter Minji Lee] Kakao Pay is experiencing a sharp decline. This follows news that Alipay Singapore Holdings is planning a block deal for 5 million shares of Kakao Pay it holds.

At 9:17 a.m. on the 8th, Kakao Pay was trading at 88,000 KRW, down 16.23% from the previous trading day. Earlier in the session, the stock fell as low as 85,800 KRW.

According to the investment industry, Alipay has begun institutional block deal demand forecasting for 5 million shares based on the closing price of the day. JP Morgan is reportedly the sole lead manager for the block deal sale. If Alipay successfully completes this block deal, it is expected to secure liquidity of approximately 500 billion KRW.

This year, Kakao Pay's stock price has been dragged down by poor earnings and news of the release of locked-up shares. While Kakao voluntarily extended the lock-up period to one year, only Alipay's shares (13,894,450 shares) among the total locked-up shares have been released to the market. However, investors worried that a large volume of Alipay shares would flood the market, leading to sell-offs.

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