Krafton plans to issue an IPO in mid-to-late 2021 that would value the startup as much as $27.2 billion, according to Bloomberg. The company produced the 2017 hit game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds or PUBG, with Kim Chang-han, a coding prodigy behind it.
- Kim Chang-han, now Krafton’s CEO, won national coding competitions in South Korea in the 1980s but had three multiplayer online games at his three startups fail.
- Kim’s PUBG sold more than 70 million copies of the PC and console versions, while the mobile version was downloaded about 600 million times.
- Krafton manages four game studios, but PUBG accounts for the vast majority of its sales and profits.
- The company had a revenue of more than $1.1 billion in the nine months ended September.
- Analysts are concerned that Krafton could be a “one-hit wonder.”
- Han Kim, the co-founder of Altos Ventures Management Inc. with shares in Krafton, suggests that the most important thing is how Krafton utilizes the intellectual property of PUBG to turn it into a bigger franchise.
- Krafton’s Kim has assured investors the company is creating an animated show to be uploaded on streaming services and a web cartoon.
- Krafton will also make movies, dramas and the company is open to acquisitions in the key areas.
Krafton share sale could be one of the biggest South Korean IPOs
Plus500
XTB
CMC Markets
eToro
FOREX.com
