On news that Wemade would be sold to Chinese capital, the stock shot straight to the upper limit (the top of the daily trading band) on the 1st,
As of 9:20 a.m. that day, Wemade was trading on the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at 25,100 won, up 29.85% from the previous trading day.
Affiliates Wemade Max (29.94%) and Wemade Play (29.97%) also shot straight to the upper limit.
Earlier, Wemade said Chair Park Gwan-ho, the founder, sold a 39.33% equity stake to NEoPulse. NEoPulse is an investment platform corporations wholly owned by a Hong Kong-based investment management firm. Chen Wei, who is closely connected with Alibaba, serves as CEO.
With the management-control transaction price far above the market price, the share price appears to be reflecting it. The total sale price is 920 billion won, topping the current market capitalization of 852.1 billion won. The transaction price is about 68,910 won per share, 3.6 times more expensive than the previous day's close of 19,330 won.
NEoPulse is seen as pursuing the acquisition of Wemade because of the intellectual property (IP) of the MIR series. "Legend of Mir 2" lost popularity in Korea, but it still enjoys strong popularity in China.