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| Gettyimagesbank |
By Anna J. Park
The unlisted stock prices of Korean unicorn companies are soaring on expectations of their looming public offerings, after Korean e-commerce giant Coupang made its successful debut on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) last week. The term "unicorn" refers to a privately held startup company valued at over $1 billion. The name of the mythical creature is used to describe the statistical rarity of such successful business ventures.
Mobile-based hotel and motel reservation app Yanolja's unlisted stock price skyrocketed more than five times in less than six months. Yanolja's unlisted stock traded at around 300,000 won or 400,000 won ($263 to $352) last autumn on local unlisted stock exchange platforms, such as Shinhan Financial-partnered PSX, also known as Seoul Exchange, and Samsung Securities-partnered Dunamu's U-Stock Plus.
Given that Yanolja's stock went through a 20:1 stock split at the end of February, the current trading price of around 80,000 won means that the company's market value has logged more than a five-fold increase in just half a year. With the price hike in its unlisted stocks, the company's market cap has also increased to 6.9 trillion won.
Market Kurly, a Korean e-commerce unicorn specializing in the grocery delivery business, also saw its unlisted stock price nearly double in just around six months, as the burgeoning startup announced plans to go public within this year. The company's unlisted stocks traded at around 21,000 won to 25,000 won last autumn, but jumped to about 50,000 won this week on local unlisted stock exchange platforms. The market cap of Kurly, the operator of Market Kurly, is estimated at over 1.1 trillion won due to the price surge.
Video game developer and publisher Krafton, globally known for its online shooter game "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds," is another local business that is enjoying a price jump in unlisted stocks. The game company's stock price more than a doubled since last summer, when the shares were traded at around 900,000 won. Now the firm's unlisted stocks are traded at around 1.85 million won on over-the-counter stock exchange platforms, making the game developer's market cap to reach around 14 trillion won.
Seoul Exchange or PSX explained that the unlisted stock trading platform's monthly active users (MAU) have almost doubled in the past month, as investors flock to purchase promising companies' stocks before their prices rise even more when they go public.
However, market watchers warn that retail investors should take heed of volatile price changes in over-the-counter stock markets. The market cap of unlisted firms could be easily overblown by rosy expectations, way more than their market value to be strictly assessed through the actual IPO process.
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