SK Square's IPO First Runner... One Store to Pursue KOSPI Listing

Next Year's First Half Goals
Lead Managers: NH Investment, KB, SK Securities

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] On the 26th, One Store announced that it has submitted a preliminary review application for listing on the Korea Exchange's KOSPI market and plans to proceed with an initial public offering (IPO) targeting the first half of next year.

SK Square has officially designated One Store as its first IPO subsidiary since its launch and formalized the IPO push targeting the first half of next year. One Store was incorporated as a subsidiary under SK Square following the split of SK Telecom on November 1st.

One Store, a subsidiary of SK Square and an application (app) market operator, has grown as a domestic app market amid competition with global app markets since its launch in 2016. It succeeded in turning an annual net profit positive in 2020, recorded operating profit in the first half of this year, and achieved remarkable growth such as reaching a total transaction volume in the third quarter of 2021 that was 27.8% higher than the same period last year.

One Store plans to accelerate growth in its existing business in the domestic market while evolving into a "global multi-OS content platform" that transcends boundaries of region, device and OS (operating system), and business areas.

To accelerate growth in its existing app market business, One Store has signed a strategic partnership with global major game company Blizzard Entertainment and plans to release the currently in-development game "Diablo Immortal" on One Store. Previously, Blizzard's "Hearthstone" was released on One Store and achieved good results, raising high expectations.

Additionally, in July, One Store made a stake investment in China’s largest webtoon platform "Kuaikan," establishing a foothold for the global expansion of "K-Story content." Furthermore, through acquisitions such as Rock Media and the Yes One Studio joint venture (JV), One Store is nurturing the story content business as a new growth area. Recently, it has also announced cooperation plans with multiple global companies including Microsoft, Tencent, and Blizzard, attracting industry attention.

One Store is currently building a platform to expand its business into the global market and regards 2022 as the inaugural year for global business expansion.

Meanwhile, following KT and LG Uplus in March, Microsoft and DTCP, an investment firm of Deutsche Telekom, joined as shareholders of One Store in June, raising expectations for the One Store IPO. The lead underwriters are NH Investment & Securities and KB Securities, with SK Securities serving as a joint underwriter.