Netmarble Games, South Korea’s second-biggest game developer, has selected JP Morgan and NH Investment & Securities to lead an initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter Wednesday.
Accordingly, other two investment banks that Netmarble hired for the listing -- Korea Investment & Securities and Citigroup Global Markets Korea Securities – will take junior underwriting roles.
Netmarble plans to float its shares at the end of 2016 or early next year with a market cap of up to 10 trillion won ($8.67 billion). The firm has not determined which exchange the stock will list on yet, though it considers Nasdaq, KOSPI and KOSDAQ as options.
The company’s IPO comes after its annual sales exceeded the 1 trillion won mark last year, largely driven by its hit mobile games such as “Monster Taming,” “Everyone’s Marble,” “Seven Knights” and “Raven.”
By Park Han-na (
hnpark@heraldcorp.com)
