While the words SNK and Rich might almost seem like an antonym in an Oxford Dictionary, things could all be changing in less than an year.
Following the report last month that SNK plans to go public by the end of 2018, Korean business site theBell [ Link ] has made an update on their story, saying that SNK is already filing for the Korean stock exchange (KOSDAQ, under KRX) this month(*1). Pending that transactions go smoothly, SNK's plans are to complete procedures within the year to go public. The process will be handled by NHI Securities Co., Ltd.
According to Korean business news site Pulse [ Link ], SNK's pre-IPO (Initial Public Offering) market cap is estimated at approximately 1 trillion won ($936 million U.S. dollars), which is exceptionally high for an overseas company under KOSDAQ.
While Japanese companies usually opt to get listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the decision to instead try and get listed on the Korean Exchange seems to be heavily influenced by the top shareholder at SNK's new Chinese parent company Ledo Millenium. theBell explains that the decision of going public on the Korean Exchange rather than in China or Japan comes from factors such as the IPO (Initial Public Offering) at the Chinese exchange being controled by government authorities, and in the case of Japan, the capital market being insufficiently dynamic.
If accepted, SNK will become the second Japanese company to get listed on the Korean Exchange this year, the other being JTC Inc., a Fukuoka-based duty free franchise store founded by Korean businessman Chulmo Ku.
theBell notes that SNK [under the management of Ledo] plans on acquiring additional intellectual property rights (IP) of Japanese and overseas game companies from funds gained through their public listing on the Stock Exchange. The company plans to work in close cooperation with Chinese social media juggernaut Tencent Inc. to make the best of their newly acquired IPs.
SNK's net profit for last year ending July 2017 was 3.1 billion yen ($29 million). theBell estimates that their net profit for this year is expected to nearly double, to approximately 5-6 billion yen ($47 - $56 million).
Thanks to Gatoray for the news.(*1) Article was originally printed in April 27 and says procedures will be "filed next month".
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