Kakao Games Corp. next month becomes the first subsidiary of Korea’s household messenger platform Kakao Corp. to go public by offering 16 million initial shares in the band of 20,000 won to 24,000 won ($20)

Given its name value and fervent retail appetite, the stock is well expected to become the biggest IPO on the secondary Kosdaq by pricing the initial shares at the top end of the desired band and raise 384 billion won ($322 million) for the game company.

It will offer 22 percent of 73.2 million shares to be listed on Aug. 11 to institutions and retailers. When priced at top end of 24,000 won, the new game stock will command a market cap of 1.76 trillion won.

Bookbuilding for pricing starts on August 26, and retail investors will be invited to subscribe to the new shares from Sept. 1. Korea Investment & Securities Co. and Samsung Securities Co. are lead underwriters for the IPO.

Kakao Games, founded in 2013, publishes and distributes mobile and PC games. Its top label is survivor shooter game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. Guardian Tales, its most recent mobile role-playing game released last month, also has been moving up fast.

The company delivered an operating profit of 12.7 billion won in the first three months on sales of 96.4 billion won.

Its debut would likely lead up to more Kakao entries. “Kakao Bank, Kakao Commerce and Kakao Page are known to be prepping to go public” said an industry source.

By Kang Woo-seok and Lee Ha-yeon

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