Internet bank K-Bank, KT's grandson company, which was considered an IPO this year, will temporarily suspend the listing process. The decision is based on the judgment that it will be difficult to properly evaluate the corporate value due to the cold wave of the IPO market that has continued since last year.
K-Bank announced on the 2nd that it has decided not to push for listing within the deadline for recognizing the validity of the listing preliminary review. K-Bank passed a preliminary listing review on the Korea Exchange in September last year for an IPO. The preliminary trial for the listing was effective for six months. The decision was made five days before the deadline for submitting securities reports on the 7th.
Amid shrinking investor sentiment due to the sluggish stock market, the judgment was that it was too much to push for listing. The postponement of K-Bank's listing was actually foreseen. On the 6th of last month, it did not submit an "Overseas Public Offering Investment Manual" to recruit foreign institutional investors. At that time, inside and outside the financial sector, it was observed that K-Bank would suspend the listing process.
The fact that the corporate value, which was mentioned up to 8 trillion won in the early days of preparation for listing, has shrunk to 4 trillion won is also believed to have been the background for the postponement of the listing. Another reason is the sluggish stock price of Kakao Bank, where K-Bank was a comparative company.
However, K-Bank plans to launch an IPO whenever market conditions are good. Although he will take a step back, he will apply for a preliminary listing review with the Korea Exchange within this year. An official from K-Bank said, "Considering the internal and external market conditions, we will continue to prepare for the IPO and re-promote it in a timely manner."
Another reason why the listing cannot be given up is that its performance is good. K-Bank posted a net profit of 22.4 billion won in 2021, "converting the surplus" from a loss of 105.4 billion won last year. In 2022, cumulative net profit until the third quarter was 71.4 billion won.
Meanwhile, an increasing number of companies are delaying the listing of IPOs in the cold season, which has continued since last year. Curly, which was called another IPO big fish, postponed the public offering race indefinitely on the 4th of last month considering internal and external situations.
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