The electronic beam (e-beam) inspection equipment specialist SEC, which is pushing for a listing on the KOSDAQ market, has set its public offering price at 15,000 won.
According to the financial investment industry on the 16th, SEC conducted demand forecasting for institutional investors from the 8th to the 14th for five trading days, setting the public offering price at the upper end of the desired public offering price range at 15,000 won.
SEC plans to raise a total of 1.2 million shares in this listing. Previously, the listing's lead underwriter, Shinyoung Securities, suggested the desired public offering price range at 13,000 to 15,000 won.
A total of 2,203 institutions participated in SEC's demand forecasting for institutional investors, indicating strong interest. Institutional investors applied for 998.36 million shares, with a competition rate of 1,232.54 to 1.
In particular, it was revealed that 99.95% (including those who did not specify a price) of all participating institutions presented prices above the upper band. This contrasts with projections that confirming the lower band would be difficult due to the market contraction from the U.S. tariff war.
As the only electronic beam-based inspection equipment technology company in the country, SEC has reportedly received high praise for evenly entering high-growth front markets such as high bandwidth memory (HBM), defense, and batteries.
Additionally, the export amount to the U.S. last year was at 2.6%, which served as a positive factor indicating that the impact of the reciprocal tariff policies of the Trump administration was not significant.
SEC is a technically listed corporation, but it also achieved a return to profitability last year. Last year's sales were recorded at 53.9 billion won, with operating profit totaling 1.3 billion won.
Kim Jong-hyun, CEO of SEC, noted, "I would like to express my deep gratitude to institutional investors who positively assessed SEC's growth potential and ask for much interest in the upcoming general public offering as well."
SEC is expected to raise about 18 billion won through this listing. The public offering funds will be used for facility investment to expand factory construction and mass production capacity (CAPA). The estimated market capitalization after listing is about 130.9 billion won.
Meanwhile, SEC will conduct public offering subscriptions for general investors over two days on April 17 and 18, with plans to list on the KOSDAQ market on the 28th of the same month.