'IPO Giant' K-Bank Applies for Preliminary Listing Review

K Bank has initiated the initial public offering (IPO) process for listing on the KOSPI.

On the 28th, K Bank applied to the Korea Exchange for preliminary review for listing on the KOSPI market. The lead underwriters are NH Investment & Securities, KB Securities, and Bank of America (BoA).

This is K Bank's second attempt at going public. Previously, it received preliminary approval for listing in 2022 but withdrew the IPO in February last year, judging that its corporate value would not be properly evaluated amid the market downturn.

K Bank was established in January 2016 as Korea's first internet-only bank and began operations in April 2017. As of the first quarter of this year, its total assets stand at KRW 26.3078 trillion, equity capital at KRW 1.9183 trillion, and net profit at KRW 50.7 billion. After achieving its first annual net profit turnaround with KRW 22.5 billion in 2021, K Bank recorded net profits of KRW 83.6 billion in 2022 and KRW 12.8 billion in 2023, maintaining a profitable trend. In the first quarter of this year, it posted a quarterly record net profit of KRW 50.7 billion.

As of the end of May, K Bank's customer base exceeded 11 million. As of the first quarter, deposit balances reached KRW 23.97 trillion and loan balances KRW 14.76 trillion, increasing by 25.7% and 6.6% respectively compared to the previous quarter. Accordingly, interest income in the first quarter rose 31.9% year-on-year (KRW 102.9 billion) to KRW 135.7 billion.

K Bank's return on equity (ROE) for the first quarter was 10.77%, the highest among internet banks. The net interest margin (NIM) for the first quarter was 2.4%, and the delinquency rate was 0.95%.

A K Bank representative said, "Through the listing, we plan to strengthen our business foundation and further strive to achieve our vision of becoming a lifestyle K Bank, an innovation investment hub, a tech-leading bank, and a practitioner of win-win finance."