"Frequent Exceeding of Hope Price Ceiling"... IPOs Continuing Their Success

KOSDAQ Top Companies Exceed Desired IPO Price Upper Limit
"January Listed Companies Average Return 240% Compared to Opening Price"

Companies listed on the KOSDAQ market continue to enjoy strong demand, with their offering prices exceeding the upper limit of their expected price ranges.

According to the financial investment industry on the 11th, K-Weather finalized its offering price at 7,000 KRW during the demand forecast for institutional investors conducted from the 1st to the 7th of this month. This exceeds the expected offering price range of 4,800 to 5,800 KRW. A total of 1,999 institutions participated in the demand forecast, recording a competition rate of 1,362.5 to 1.

Not only K-Weather, but all companies recently going public (IPO) have set offering prices above the upper limit. In the demand forecast for institutional investors conducted from the 29th of last month to the 2nd of this month, about 1,600 institutions participated for E8, recording a competition rate of 631 to 1 and finalizing the offering price at 20,000 KRW. This surpasses the expected offering price range of 14,500 to 18,500 KRW.

Additionally, Kosem, a company specializing in Scanning Electron Microscopes (SEM), conducted a demand forecast over five business days starting from the 29th of last month and finalized the offering price at 16,000 KRW. This exceeds the upper limit of the expected offering price range of 12,000 to 14,000 KRW. A total of 2,022 domestic and international institutional investors participated, recording a competition rate of 1,268 to 1.

This trend is similar for recently listed companies. The offering price of Inix, a secondary battery safety solution specialist that was listed on the 1st, was set at 14,000 KRW, exceeding the expected offering price range of 9,200 to 11,000 KRW. Also, Studio Samik, which entered KOSDAQ on the 6th, recorded a competition rate of 966.90 to 1 with participation from 1,942 institutions. The finalized offering price was 18,000 KRW, exceeding the upper limit of the expected offering price range of 14,500 to 16,500 KRW.

Furthermore, all four stocks newly listed last month?HB Investment, Woojin Entech, Hyundai Hims, and POS Bank?had finalized offering prices exceeding the upper limit of their expected price ranges. The average competition rate in institutional demand forecasts was 905.5 to 1.

The continuous exceeding of the upper limit in offering prices is due to the high first-day returns of recently listed companies. According to Eugene Investment & Securities, among the eight companies listed in January last month, excluding SPACs, KONEX, and previously listed companies, the average initial return compared to the offering price was 239.5%, marking the highest return ever recorded.

Researcher Park Jong-sun of Eugene Investment & Securities explained, "As of the 31st of last month, the return compared to the offering price recorded a high figure of 99.2%," adding, "The growing market interest is believed to be due to the significant profitability following the increased price volatility on the first day of listing since the end of June last year."