[Market Focus] Neptune Drops Over 14% on News of Kakao Games Stake Sale

Game developer Neptune saw its shares plunge in early trading on April 30 following news that Kakao Games would sell its entire stake in the company.

As of 10:01 a.m. on this day, Neptune's shares were trading at 7,480 won on the KOSDAQ market, down 14.02% from the previous trading day.

Krafton announced after the market closed the previous day that it would acquire Kakao Games' entire 39.37% stake in Neptune (18,387,039 shares) for approximately 165 billion won. With this acquisition, Krafton's stake in Neptune will increase from the current 3.16% to 42.5%. The scheduled date for the share acquisition is June 30. Krafton stated that the purpose of this acquisition is to "secure mid- to long-term growth engines through business diversification."

Neptune, founded in 2012 by Jung Wook, former CEO of NHN Hangame, is best known for titles such as "Infinity Staircase" and "Cat Snack Bar." Its subsidiaries include Nimble Neuron, the developer of the popular online game "Eternal Return."

Kakao Games invested 19 billion won in Neptune in 2018, and then made an additional investment of 193.5 billion won through a third-party paid-in capital increase in 2020, becoming the largest shareholder. Kakao Games explained that the decision to sell was made in order to focus its resources on core businesses.