이 기사는 2021년 08월 02일 07시51분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

There are concerns about KakaoBank’s stock overhangs and expectations of rapid stock price rise in the market ahead of the initial public offering (IPO) of the mobile banking unit of South Korea’s online messaging app giant Kakao.

About 45% of total institutional investors which participated in the bookbuilding process will follow lock-up period, and the final ratio is likely to be higher than this, according to industry sources. Approximately 49% of domestic institutions and 13% of foreign institutions have agreed to keep shares for a specified period of time.

Issuers and underwriters normally allocate more shares to investors which agree to keep shares for a longer period of time.

KakaoBank and its underwriters have also reportedly given extra points to institutions which have agreed to hold the shares for a certain period time during the stock allocation process.

Among mega IPO deals carried out in 2020 and 2021, 52.25% of SK Biopharm shares allocated to institutional investors were locked up, and 72.57% were locked up for Kakao Games shares. 78.37% of HYBE shares were locked up and 64.57% were locked up for SK IE Technology (SKIET) shares.

A significant portion of the shares bought by foreign underwriters (48% of total shares offered in the IPO) was also found to have been allocated to domestic institutions with a relatively high lock-up proportion.

However, industry watchers said the stock is unlikely to record “ddasang,” market slang that refers to a new stock opening at double the offering price and hitting the daily limit on the first trading day. This is because the proportion of individual investors chasing short-term returns is high despite the craze over the bank’s IPO.

KakaoBank’s IPO has benefited from the delay of other mega IPOs, including Krafton and Kakao Pay. This means investors may sell their KakaoBank shares sooner than expected in a bid to participate in other deals in the future.

Many institutional investors said the IPO price of KakaoBank is not expensive, but it is not cheap either.

Investors also need to see the direction of KakaoBank’s business although it is currently seen as a platform company instead of an ordinary bank. The controversy over the IPO price bubble, which has been constantly raised since the beginning of the IPO process, is also based on doubts about the internet-only lender’s platform business.

KakaoBank plans to use the proceeds raised from the IPO to expand its platform business in earnest.

“Investors are likely to flock into KakaoBank given the recent trend in the domestic stock market where platform business is emerging as a new investment destination, and the IPO craze,” said an institutional investor. “But it will take some time for the current offering price to settle as an appropriate market price.” (Reporting by Seok-cheol Choi)