Lead underwriters including KB Securities voluntarily agree to lock up KB Balhae Infrastructure shares

KB Securities announced on the 28th that, together with the underwriting consortium including Kiwoom Securities and Daishin Securities, it has decided to voluntarily hold the KB Balhae Infrastructure Investment Company (hereinafter KB Balhae Infra) acquisition shares for three months from the listing date.

The underwriting consortium, including the lead underwriter KB Securities, Kiwoom Securities, and Daishin Securities, added to the securities issuance performance report on the 27th that they will voluntarily hold the unsold shares from the general subscription of KB Balhae Infra for three months without selling them, in order to manage supply and demand and protect general investors.

The unsold shares from the general subscription of KB Balhae Infra acquired by the underwriting consortium amount to approximately 82.6 billion KRW, with the original acquisition ratio being 60% for KB Securities, and 25% and 15% for Kiwoom Securities and Daishin Securities, respectively.

Considering the underwriting consortium’s voluntary lock-up of the acquired shares, the circulation ratio of KB Balhae Infra immediately after listing will decrease to 7.4%. It is expected to be a high-dividend stock with dividend payments of 7.7% or more over the next three years based on the prospectus (based on the public offering price), showing favorable stock price trends after listing (for comparison, the Macquarie Infrastructure Fund’s dividend payout ratio is 6.6%).

Additionally, it offers the advantage of separate taxation (15.4%) within a 10 million KRW limit through a dedicated investment account, and unlike REITs whose underlying assets are real estate, it invests mainly in social overhead capital (SOC) such as roads, resulting in much more stable cash flow.

As the first listed case of a native infrastructure fund, KB Balhae Infra is scheduled to be listed on the KOSPI market on the 29th.

Considering the recent extreme deterioration of market sentiment in the public offering market leading to continuous withdrawals, the demand forecast result of 3.99 to 1 for institutional investors in KB Balhae Infra is regarded as a solid performance.

Subsequently, the underwriting consortium reduced the public offering size to 80% and proceeded with the general subscription. Due to factors such as poor stock price performance on the day of public offering for recently listed companies, the subscription competition rate ended at around 0.26 to 1.

A KB Securities official said, “The underwriting consortium took responsibility and voluntarily promoted a three-month lock-up,” adding, “We plan to continuously strive to provide a high-quality investment environment to investors, including KB Balhae Infra, which has the appeal of a high-dividend stock.”