AStory, a South Korean drama producer known for its TV series “Kingdom” available on Netflix, will join the secondary Korea Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (Kosdaq) this month, with hopes to raise up to 26.7 billion won ($22.8 million).

The local drama producer held a press conference in Yeouido, Seoul, on Thursday, and announced its plan for the initial public offering (IPO). The company is eyeing an IPO price band of 11,600 won to 14,300 won a piece for 1.87 million shares, which would generate between 21.7 billion won and 26.7 billion won, respectively.

Public subscription will take place on July 9-10 after a book building session ended on Thursday. It aims to debut on July 19. Its underwriter is NH Investment & Securities Co.

AStory – which raised 1.2 billion won in operating income on sales of 46.4 billion won last year – is a drama content production company founded in 2004. In 2018, 44 percent of its total sales was from overseas business. The company is known for producing Netflix original drama series Kingdom and tvN dramas “Signal” and “100 Days My Prince” among others. Its major shareholders are CJ ENM Corp., SM Entertainment Co., and China’s Tencent Holdings.

AStory said that it has a vast pool of skilled producers and writers including Choi Moon-suk, chief producer and director of hit drama “Something Happened in Bali,” Choi Wan-kyu, chief writer of TV dramas “Hur Jun” and “All In,” and Kim Eun-hee, playwright for “Signal.”

The company is currently developing various season-based contents including “Kingdom 2” and “Signal Season 2.” It also plans to actively promote businesses utilizing intellectual property such as by producing games, web toons, and web dramas based on drama IP.

AStory plans to enter into a publishing partnership with mobile game publisher Com2uS Corp. and launch a mobile game version of Kingdom in the second half of this year.

Lee Sang-baek, founder and chief executive of AStory, said that the company will also develop global contents targeting overseas markets such as those that can be produced on a season basis.

By Kang Woo-seok and Lee Eun-joo

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