Korea Exchange Does Not Recognize Effectiveness of Innogrid's KOSDAQ Listing Preliminary Review

The Korea Exchange KOSDAQ Market Committee decided not to recognize the validity of Innogrid's preliminary listing examination approval, leading Innogrid to withdraw its listing. Initially, Innogrid had planned to conduct a general subscription next week.

Korea Exchange, Yeouido, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

The Korea Exchange announced on the 19th that the KOSDAQ Market Committee decided on the 18th, after deliberation by the Market Committee, not to recognize the validity of Innogrid's preliminary listing examination approval result for the KOSDAQ market.

The Exchange explained, "This decision to not recognize the validity is due to false statements or omissions of important matters in the examination application form that significantly affected the preliminary listing examination results. Innogrid was aware of the related matters in advance but judged them as not important and therefore did not include them in the preliminary listing examination application form, which prevented these facts from being reviewed during the preliminary listing examination stage."

The omitted content concerned a dispute over the status of the largest shareholder, which was discovered during the securities registration statement acceptance stage, and the 'risk of potential legal disputes such as lawsuits' was recorded in the sixth amended securities registration statement.

As a result of this decision to not recognize the validity, Innogrid will be unable to apply for a preliminary listing examination for the next year.

Considering the seriousness of market confusion caused by invalidation after preliminary examination approval, the Exchange plans to review measures to prevent recurrence of false statements and omissions of important matters in preliminary listing examination applications. Possible measures include extending the current one-year restriction period to 3 to 5 years, revising the preliminary listing examination application form to discourage arbitrary judgment regarding mandatory disclosure items in the preparation guidelines, and specifying sanctions for omissions of important facts.

Following this decision by the KOSDAQ Market Committee, Innogrid submitted a withdrawal report on the same day. The company stated, "According to Article 8 of the KOSDAQ Market Listing Regulations, the validity of the company's preliminary listing examination result is not recognized, so we are canceling the remaining schedule and submitting a withdrawal report." It added, "No shares have been allocated to institutional investors who participated in the demand forecast, and since the subscription has not yet been conducted for general investors, there is no issue regarding investor protection." Innogrid had planned to conduct a general subscription on the 24th and 25th and to list in July.