Chiefs of South Korea’s top game moguls NCSoft Corp. and Netmarble Games Corp. are set to join the nation’s stock billionaire list following the much anticipated initial public offering (IPO) of the latter slated for early next month.

Kim Taek-jin, chief executive and the biggest shareholder of NCSoft with an 11.98 percent stake, recently saw his estimated stockholding value in the firm rise a whopping 51.5 percent to 943.5 billion won ($831.7 million) from 621.5 billion won over a year period after the company’s stock price shot up from 236,500 won to 359,000 won.

The rally in the company’s stock has lifted Kim’s stock value to the country’s 24th largest this year from 30th last year. Kim is expected to see the value of his stockholding in his company boost further following the much hyped IPO of Netmarble Games whose 8.62 percent stake is held by NCSoft. NCSoft took over an 8.62 percent stake of its rival under a mutual stock swap agreement in February 2015.

Market capitalization of Netmarble Games that will be listed on the Seoul bourse next month is expected to reach between 10.4 trillion won and 13.5 trillion won. As Netmarble Games’ IPO draws near, expectations are growing that NCSoft chief Kim’s shareholding value would exceed 1 trillion won following the IPO.

Netmarble Games founder and senior advisor Bang Jun-hyuk would also join the nation’s top 10 stock-rich club as soon as the game company joins the Kospi on May 12. Bang owns a 30.59 percent stake in Netmarble Games and the value of his stockholding in the firm is expected to amount to about 3.5 trillion won upon listing based on the mid-price in the desired price band of 121,000 won and 157,000 won apiece. Currently, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won ranks 5th in the country’s top 10 stock-rich club, with his stockholding value reaching 3.8 trillion won.

Kim Ga-ram, chief executive of DoubleUGames Co., the country’s leading social casino gaming publisher, has also seen his shareholding in the firm jump 62.2 percent recently to 418.1 billion won on the firm’s latest decision to acquire U.S. social casino subsidiary of International Game Technology PLC (IGT), global leader in gaming systems technology.

By Lee Yong-gun and Yoon Jin-ho

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]