Socar Submits Securities Registration Statement for KOSPI Listing... Aiming for Listing in August

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] Mobility platform Socar (CEO Park Jae-wook) announced on the 24th that it has submitted a securities registration statement to the Financial Services Commission, officially starting the public offering process for listing on the KOSPI market as the first domestic unicorn company.

Socar's total number of shares to be offered is 4.55 million, with a desired price range of 34,000 KRW to 45,000 KRW per share. The expected amount to be raised based on the upper limit of the price band is approximately 204.8 billion KRW. The company plans to conduct a demand forecast targeting institutional investors from August 1 to 2 to finalize the offering price, followed by a general subscription over two days on August 8 and 9. The listing is scheduled for August, with Mirae Asset Securities as the lead underwriter, Samsung Securities as the joint underwriter, and Yuanta Securities as the managing underwriter.

Socar plans to issue all the offered shares as new shares without any existing shares being sold. Additionally, Socar explained that major shareholders and related parties have agreed to a lock-up period of one year, strategic investors six months, and financial investors have staggered lock-up periods of one month, three months, and six months, resulting in circulating shares after listing accounting for about 16.28% of the total shares. This is an unusually low level compared to the average initial circulating share ratio of 38.8% for KOSPI-listed companies over the past three years.

Park Jae-wook, CEO of Socar, stated, "As Korea's first mobility unicorn company, Socar has continuously improved rapid growth and profitability through data accumulated over the past 11 years and mobility technology. The funds raised through this public offering will be invested in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and investments within the mobility value chain, launching new services, securing technological capabilities, and strengthening the company's growth and business competitiveness."

Meanwhile, founded in 2011, Socar is the overwhelming leader in the domestic car-sharing market, operating a mobility platform business including vehicle rentals. Currently, it operates more than 18,000 vehicles at over 4,200 Socar zones nationwide, holding over 70% market share in the domestic car-sharing market. As of May this year, the cumulative number of members reached approximately 8 million, equivalent to one-quarter of domestic licensed drivers, with about 10 million cumulative app downloads and 650,000 cumulative integrated membership subscriptions.

In addition to the vehicle sharing platform "Socar," the company also operates services such as the electric bicycle sharing platform "Illekle" and the online parking platform "Modu-ui Juchajang" (Everyone's Parking Lot).