Kakao Pay's Final First-Day Competition Rate at 10.69:1... 5 Shares Allocated Per Subscription

Securities Firms Extend Subscription Hours and Relax Rules on First Day
Initial Deposit Falls Short at Around 2 Trillion Won
100% Equal Allocation Leads to 'Waiting Game'... Results Awaited by 4 PM Today

[Asia Economy Reporter Ji Yeon-jin] Kakao Pay recorded a final integrated competition rate of 10.69 to 1 on the first day of subscription. As of the previous day, this level allows each subscriber to receive about 5 shares.

According to Samsung Securities, the lead underwriter, by 10 p.m. the previous night, the first day of Kakao Pay's public offering subscription closed with subscription deposits totaling 2.0442 trillion KRW across four securities firms (Samsung Securities, Daishin Securities, Korea Investment & Securities, and Shinhan Financial Investment). A total of 8,490,940 subscriptions (45,427,060 shares) were received for the allocation of 4.25 million shares, resulting in an expected allocation of 5.01 shares per person.

The largest amount of subscription deposits was gathered by Samsung Securities (1.0113 trillion KRW), followed by Korea Investment & Securities (731 billion KRW), Daishin Securities (171.2 billion KRW), and Shinhan Financial Investment (130.4 billion KRW). The subscription competition rates were highest at Korea Investment & Securities with 22.94 to 1 (expected equal allocation of 2.38 shares), followed by Shinhan Financial Investment at 16.38 to 1 (3.40 shares), Samsung at 9.76 to 1 (5.87 shares), and Daishin at 3.58 to 1 (9.96 shares).

Kakao Pay, considered the last major public offering of the year, posted a modest performance on the first day. The subscription deposits collected on the first day were lower than those of Kakao Bank (1.20522 trillion KRW) and Hyundai Heavy Industries (557.51 billion KRW), which conducted public offerings in the second half of this year. It slightly exceeded Krafton's (1.8 trillion KRW), which was recorded as a public offering failure this year.

However, since the four securities firms extended the subscription time until 10 p.m. the previous night, the first day's subscription deposits were below expectations. Samsung Securities, the lead underwriter, also changed the online subscription eligibility rules to allow only customers who opened accounts by the day before the subscription start date, including non-face-to-face accounts, to apply for online subscriptions.

Some expect that if more subscribers apply than the quantity secured by the securities firms, resulting in possible 'zero share allocation,' the second day of subscription may see increased participation due to cautious competition. This Kakao Pay subscription is the first in domestic IPO history to allocate 100% of the public offering shares equally to general subscribers, allowing targeting of securities firms with lower competition rates on the first day. The minimum equal allocation subscription quantity for Kakao Pay is 20 shares (subscription deposit of 900,000 KRW). Even if more shares are applied for, everyone receives the same number of shares.

The share quantities by securities firm are 2.3 million shares for Samsung Securities, 1.06 million shares for Daishin Securities, 700,000 shares for Korea Investment & Securities, and 170,000 shares for Shinhan Financial Investment. The subscription deadline is 4 p.m. today.