Kakao IPO
Kakao Corp., which provides the Kakao Talk service, announced on January 6 that it is pushing forward with a plan to go public on the Korean Stock Exchange in May of next year.
This is the first time for the company to mention a specific date about its listing. An official at Kakao confirmed by saying, “We are preparing to be listed in May 2015,” adding, “That is our goal. So, the timing can be changed, depending on the situation.” The official added, “Our firm reached the conclusion that we should not hasten our listing in order to have the company evaluated properly. So, we delayed our plan.”
Kakao’s stocks are reportedly traded over-the-counter at around 90,000 won. The securities industry anticipates that the company’s market cap will reach 5 trillion won (US$4.6 billion) once it achieves 500 billion won (US$468 million) in sales this year.