K Bank, Demand Forecast Failure Leads to Another Postponement of IPO Listing

K-Bank, which had been anticipated as the biggest IPO in the second half of the year, has decided to postpone its listing on the KOSPI market after a failed demand forecast.

According to the financial industry on the 18th, K-Bank announced that it would delay its listing plan on the same day.

During the demand forecast conducted from the 10th to the 16th for institutional investors, it was reported that the lead managers NH Investment & Securities and KB Securities requested a price of around 8,500 KRW, which is below the expected IPO price range of 9,500 KRW to 12,000 KRW. In this case, K-Bank's valuation would drop from the previous 5 trillion KRW to around 3 trillion KRW. Additionally, the fact that half of the offering volume consisted of secondary shares was also considered a risk factor. Secondary shares are investment funds recovered by existing financial investors, not funds flowing into K-Bank.

K-Bank plans to revise the IPO structure within six months before the expiration of the preliminary listing review and reattempt the listing early next year.

A K-Bank representative said, "We plan to promptly pursue the listing again by improving the IPO structure," adding, "We will strive to have our company’s proper value recognized during the listing process."

Meanwhile, this is the second time K-Bank has withdrawn its listing. After receiving the preliminary listing review in 2022, K-Bank's valuation soared to as high as 8 trillion KRW, but due to a sluggish stock market at the time of the listing push, it withdrew the listing in February last year.

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