K Bank, Esteem to List as IPO Market Revives in March

Initial public offerings, which had stalled with only one listing across KOSPI and KOSDAQ despite this year's bull market, are set to resume in earnest starting the first week of March. K Bank, on its third IPO attempt, and entertainment agency Esteem are both preparing to list, while the year's first biotech IPO subscription awaits. Expectations for an IPO boom are spreading with a major listing and new entertainment and biotech stocks joining KOSDAQ.

According to financial investment industry sources on the 2nd, internet-only bank K Bank will debut on the KOSPI market on the 5th. K Bank received approximately 830,000 orders during its public subscription for retail investors held on the 20th and 23rd of last month, recording a subscription competition ratio of 134.6 to 1. The company attracted approximately 9.84 trillion won in subscription deposits.

In the earlier institutional investor book-building process, K Bank set its final offering price at 8,300 won, the bottom of its indicated range. This translates to a total offering amount of 498 billion won and an expected market capitalization of approximately 3.37 trillion won immediately after listing.

K Bank plans to use the funds raised through this IPO as core capital for entering the SME loan market, strengthening technological differentiation, building a platform business foundation, and expanding into new businesses such as digital assets. NH Investment & Securities and Samsung Securities jointly served as lead underwriters, with Shinhan Investment Corp. joining the underwriting syndicate.

On the following day, the 6th, brand value creation company Esteem will list on the KOSDAQ market. Esteem recorded a competition ratio of 1,960.87 to 1 in its earlier public subscription, collecting approximately 3.75 trillion won in deposits. Institutions also responded favorably. A total of 2,263 institutions participated in the book-building process held over five trading days from the 9th to 13th of last month, showing a high competition ratio of 1,335 to 1. Notably, 99.9% of participating institutions (including those that did not specify prices) submitted bids at or above the upper end of the price range, setting the final offering price at 8,500 won, the top of the indicated band. The offering amount is approximately 15.3 billion won.

Having completed all payment procedures on the 26th, Esteem plans to deploy the IPO proceeds toward expanding incubation investments in promising K-fashion brands, establishing offline flagship stores, and international expansion of "Catwalk Festa," its proprietary revenue-generating content intellectual property. Korea Investment & Securities served as lead underwriter.

New IPO subscription schedules are also lined up. Canap Therapeutics, this year's first biotech IPO candidate, will conduct retail investor subscriptions on the 5th and 6th. Canap Therapeutics is a drug development company that develops bispecific antibody immuno-oncology drugs and antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) therapeutics based on a human genome-based drug development platform.

Canap Therapeutics will offer 2 million shares through a 100% new share issuance in this listing. The total number of shares after listing will be 12.97 million, with an indicated offering price range of 16,000 won to 20,000 won. This translates to an offering amount of 32 billion to 40 billion won and an expected market capitalization of 207.5 billion to 259.3 billion won. The raised funds will be intensively deployed toward research and development for pipeline advancement. Korea Investment & Securities is serving as lead underwriter, and following this public subscription, the company is scheduled to officially debut on the KOSDAQ market on the 16th of this month.