November 27, 2024

• 

Kakao Page, a mobile content platform operator owned by South Korea’s internet giant Kakao, has selected underwriters for an initial public offering of the company roughly valued at some 1.5 trillion won ($1.3 billion).

Related:
KakaoPage acquires Indonesian webtoon operator


Korean investment banks NH Investment & Securities and KB Securities have been chosen as the IPO underwriters out of six candidates, according to industry sources on April 17.

Details of the listing, price and timing have not been decided yet.

Kakao is the largest shareholder of Kakao Page, holding 63.79 percent stake.

Founded in 2010, Kakao Page launched its eponymous platform for contents like webtoons and web novels in 2013. It has published hit contents such as “What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim.”

Based in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province, its revenue comes from advertisements on the platform, a soft paywall where new contents are open for free after a certain period of time, as well as intellectual properties.

Kakao Page in 2018 logged 12.6 billion won operating profit, rising fourfold on-year, while its revenue surged nearly 60 percent on-year to 187.6 billion won. The company recorded a net loss of 4.2 billion won.

The platform is also broadening its presence overseas. In December, Kakao Page acquired a pay-to-read Indonesian webtoon platform Neo Bazar.

By Son Ji-hyoung (consnow@heraldcorp.com)