Last year's second half saw a slump in the stock market, freezing the public offering market, resulting in a withdrawal of funds from related funds.
On the 5th, according to the fund evaluation agency Korea Fund Evaluation, the funds flowing into 135 public offering funds during the first half of last year totaled 879.4 billion won. However, in the second half, up to the 16th of last month, 436.2 billion won was withdrawn.
This is interpreted as funds being withdrawn from public offering funds due to disappointment with the shrinking public offering market. In fact, all 29 corporations that went public in the first half of last year had their final offering prices at or above the upper end of the expected range. However, among the 48 corporations that went public in the second half, 12 did not reach the lower end or the lower boundary of the expected range.
Among these, eight corporations had offering prices below the expected range, all of which went public in the fourth quarter. Notably, in the fourth quarter, corporations such as K Bank, CK Solution, Dongbang Medical, Meatbox Global, and Orum Therapeutics frequently withdrew or postponed their listing schedules.
The corporate consulting firm IR Qudus noted in last year's initial public offering (IPO) settlement of account report that "the 2024 initial public offering (IPO) market took on a typical 'high-to-low' pattern," mentioning that the corporations with offering prices below the expected range were concentrated in the fourth quarter and stating that "the 'selection of the good and bad' in the IPO market intensified in the latter half of the year."
However, starting from the first half of this year, with the large corporation LG CNS, which has a public offering scale of over 1 trillion won, preparing to go public, the public offering market is expected to become vibrant. LG CNS has already initiated the formal public offering process aiming for a listing on the stock market next month, while K Bank, Seoul Guarantee Insurance, Lotte Global Logistics, and Dalba Global are also preparing for their listings.