Krafton earnings soar ahead of IPO

South Korean game developer Krafton’s sales last year jumped 53 percent to around 1.7 trillion won ($1.5 billion), the company said in its annual report.

The company behind the hit battle royal game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is expected to accelerate steps for an initial public offering, on the back of the strong performance.

According to Krafton’s business report for 2020, the company’s revenue for the whole of last year amounted to 1.67 trillion won, up 53.6 percent on-year, while its operating profit increased 115.4 percent on-year to 773.9 billion won. Net profit too almost doubled to 556.3 billion won.

Krafton’s earnings last year came close at the heels of the country’s top game makers Nexon and NCSoft, whose operating profits came to 1.19 trillion won and 824.8 billion won, respectively.

Krafton’s strong sales were supported by the mobile version of Battlegrounds. Krafton generated 1.34 trillion won from mobile devices, up from 545.6 billion won in 2019. Krafton’s sales from PC and consoles in 2020 reached 264.9 billion won 29.5 billion won, down from 450 billion won and 80.2 billion won in 2019.

By region, Krafton earned 202 billion won in Korea, 1.41 trillion won in the rest of Asia and 32.9 billion won in North America and Europe. Sales in Asia posted the most dramatic increase from those of a year earlier which reached 815 billion won.

Krafton approved a 1-to-5 stock split plan during its general shareholders meeting held Wednesday last week. When split, the company’s stock price would come down to between 450,000 to 500,000 won from the current 2.3 million won. The stock split will take place on May 4.

According to local investment and securities companies, Krafton’s debut on the main Kospi bourse will likely be in the second or third quarter this year.

By Shim Woo-hyun (ws@heraldcorp.com)