Kakao Games Corp., the game developing unit of South Korea’s leading mobile messenger operator Kakao Corp., will pursue a public listing on the secondary Kosdaq market next year to strengthen its foothold in the gaming industry.

The company said Thursday it has chosen Korea Investment & Securities Co. as its underwriter and will work out the IPO plans and scheduling in the coming months.

By going public, Kakao Games intends to diversify its portfolio by identifying new opportunities and taking its business overseas. It also wants to reinforce its publishing capabilities and gather funds to develop its own games.

The firm has been laying out the groundwork to ease the listing process. It recently acquired Maum Golf, a screen golf simulator company, and won the domestic publishing rights to PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, a popular online shooting game developed by Bluehole Studio.

Last month, it merged with the game business unit that was under Kakao to address redundancy issues. It has also smoothed out the conflict with NHN Entertainment over the contract extension of its mobile puzzle game Friends Pop.

By Seo Dong-cheol

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