Unlock the Editor’s Digest free of charge
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite tales on this weekly publication.
Webtoon Leisure, a web-based comics platform that has turn out to be South Korea’s newest profitable cultural export, has priced its US preliminary public providing on the prime of its marketed vary to worth the corporate at $2.7bn.
The Los Angeles-based group managed by South Korean net portal big Naver stated on Wednesday it might promote 15mn shares at $21 apiece after advertising them for $18-$21. The IPO will elevate $315mn, and shares will begin buying and selling on the Nasdaq within the US on Thursday.
South Korean firms together with Naver and Kakao have led the manga business’s digital transformation, making on-line comics well-liked internationally following the worldwide success of Ok-pop and Korean movies and dramas.
Webtoon Leisure has about 170mn month-to-month energetic customers in additional than 150 international locations, together with 7.7mn US customers. Its fundamental markets are South Korea and Japan, which account for 27 per cent of world readership.
The IPO is anticipated to attract curiosity from buyers, with on-line comics now a supply of inspiration for the leisure business. Many well-liked TV dramas together with Beautiful Runner, Shifting and Hellbound are primarily based on so-called webtoons.
BlackRock, the world’s largest fund supervisor, has indicated an curiosity in shopping for as much as $50mn price of shares within the providing, in keeping with the corporate’s filings with the US Securities and Change Fee.
Im Hee-seok, an analyst at Mirae Asset, stated in a latest report that the US itemizing would achieve success given the business’s “explosive progress” lately. However the firm additionally faces issues concerning the business’s slowing income progress charges after a pandemic-driven increase.
Business executives hope the success of webtoon-inspired TV sequence will convey new worldwide readers to their platforms as international followers hunt down the sources of their favorite tales and characters.
Webtoon Leisure, based in 2005, posted a web lack of $145mn on income of $1.28bn final 12 months. Naver will personal 63.4 per cent of the corporate’s shares after the providing, whereas Tokyo-based LY Company can have practically 25 per cent.
Analysts stated it might be troublesome for the IPO to spice up shares of its mum or dad in South Korea. Naver and LY have been embroiled in a knowledge sovereignty spat between South Korea and Japan after Naver’s programs internet hosting the Line Yahoo web service suffered safety breaches.
Webtoons — comedian strips designed to be learn on smartphones and tablets — stay comparatively unknown outdoors east Asia.
Nonetheless, South Korean firms are accelerating their enlargement past the area, constructing audiences in Europe, Latin America and south-east Asia.
Webtoon Leisure gives companies in 10 languages together with English, Korean, Japanese, French, Spanish and German. In 2021, Naver acquired Canadian firm Wattpad, an online novel platform with 89mn customers, for $600mn.
Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and Evercore managed the providing.
