Lionheart Studio, Golfzon Commerce ditch IPO listing plan

Lionheart Studio, a Kakao Games subsidiary and Golfzon Commerce are the latest companies to cancel their Initial Public Offering listing. The companies are supposed to go public before this year ends, but there has been a major change in the plans.

Kakao Game's unit, Lionheart Studio, is a developer of mobile and online games that specializes in multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), and it is one of the most anticipated IPO in the KOSDAQ market this year. However, it scrapped the plans amid all the negative views on its valuation, plus it appears that the public has gotten exhausted from the series of IPOs being filed by Kakao's affiliates.

According to The Korea Times, Lionheart Studio was scheduled to carry out a stock allotment process for retail investors within the first week of November, but the company announced last week that it is withdrawing its IPO plan. This was an unexpected move because it was just two weeks ago when it forwarded its IPO registration statements to the local financial authority.

Kakao Game's subsidiary said it made the decision to cancel its listing after carefully reviewing circumstances in both local and global markets. The game developer said the current situation makes it difficult for the markets to acknowledge the company's proper valuation.

Lionheart Studio expected its market cap to be appraised at no less than KRW3 trillion or around $2.1 billion, but the general market sentiment considers this valuation to be excessive thus, it made the decision to call off its listing at KOSDAQ.

The company further said that the other reason is the public's cold reactions to another Kakao subsidiary filing for an IPO. Its listing move led to suspicions of weakening the financial gains of minor stockholders. Moreover, as Kakao Games owns 54.94% of Lionheart Studio, the criticisms regarding the damage to shareholders run high.

Meanwhile, Pulse News reported that Golfzon Commerce also announced it is withdrawing from its IPO on the same day as Lionheart Studio. Despite the company being a dominant player in the South Korean retail golf equipment market, industry observers criticized its plans to go public, and this was one of the reasons for the cancellation.