About 20 firms to go public on Kospi in 2017

About 20 businesses are planning to go public on South Korea’s main stock trading board Kospi next year, for the combined value of about 7 trillion won ($5.86 billion), the index operator said Wednesday.

Netmarble Games, Korea South-East Power, Korea East-West Power and ING Life Insurance are among the expected Kospi entrants which will lead the initial public offering market next year, according to a survey by the Korea Exchange.

The total value of IPOs will reach 7 trillion won in 2017, outstripping the 4.3 trillion won of 16 companies this year, the KRX said.

The largest IPO deal of this year was Samsung BioLogics, at 2.25 trillion won. It was the second-biggest deal after Samsung Life Insurance whose IPO price was 4.89 trillion won in 2010.

Netmarble Games’ IPO value is estimated to be around 2 trillion won, while the two state-run power distributors are projected to be about 1 trillion won each. ING Life Insurance is forecast to be similar.

“If Hotel Lotte resumes its halted IPO plan that was in between 4.1 and 5.3 trillion won in value, the total IPO value would further increase,” the operator said in a statement.

Considering the government’s plan announced on Dec. 8 to list eight energy-related public institutions, the total number of newly listed firms will be around 20, according to KRX.

Including the aforementioned two power corporations, three more provincial power distributors, which are subsidiaries of Korea Electric Power Corp., are on the government’s IPO list. Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Corp., Kepco KDN, a smart grid technology provider, and Korea Gas Technology Corp. are on the list as well.

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)