SNK preparing to go public on Stock Exchange

By next year, SNK fans that have grown up to adulthood with NeoGeo games may finally be able to buy a piece of their favorite corporate pie.

According to a report by Korean capital market magazine theBell [ Link ], SNK Corporation is preparing on going public with their stock via the Korean Exchange (KRX). The Osaka-based videogame publisher is aiming to file their preliminary examination request in the first half of 2018 and to complete their public offering procedures within the year. The process will be handled by NHI Securities Co., Ltd.

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 game companies from the 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).