LINE gets off to good start in New York, Tokyo

Published : Jul 15, 2016 - 11:23 Updated : Jul 15, 2016 - 11:50

[THE INVESTOR] After its debut on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on July 15, LINE Corp.’s shares soared around 52 percent to 5,000 yen (US$47.40) from its offer price of 3,300 yen, as of 10:39 a.m.

Trading of the company’s share in Tokyo was delayed early in the morning as buyers outnumbered sellers by about four to one.

Line CFO Hwang In-joon (left), New York Stock Exchange President Tom Farley (second from left), Line Chief Global Officer Shin Jung-ho (third left), and Line chief strategy officer Jun Masuda ring a ceremonial bell as Line's IPO begins trading on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on July 14. / Naver

Shares of LINE, the mobile messenger service operator owned by Naver, also saw significant rise in New York on July 14.

LINE’s million American Depository Shares began at $32.84 topping the expected price range, and closed at US$ 41.58, rising 26.6 percent over the course of the day.

Lee Hae-jin, board chairman of Naver, which holds about 80 percent of LINE after the IPO, is expected to hold a press conference on July 15 at the company’s data center in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province.

LINE is the world’s seventh largest mobile messenger service with more than 218 million users. The majority of the users are located in Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan and Thailand.

The Japan-based Naver subsidiary posted 2015 sales of about 1.29 trillion won, up 39 percent from the previous year.

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)