Jun Ji-hye, a reporter at the finance desk of The Korea Times, focuses primarily on economic policy and government agencies, mainly covering the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the Ministry of Budget and Planning, the National Tax Service and the Korea Customs Service. She previously covered financial authorities, including the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service, and earlier worked on the political, city and business desks, reporting on a wide range of issues.
SGI launches second IPO bid
Seoul Guarantee Insurance (SGI) headquarters in Seoul / Courtesy of SGI
By Jun Ji-hye
Seoul Guarantee Insurance (SGI) is making a second attempt to debut on the benchmark KOSPI by significantly lowering its public offering price, the company said Tuesday.
The move comes after its first bid for initial public offering (IPO) in 2023 was withdrawn due to weak demand in the institutional investor book-building process.
The country’s largest comprehensive guarantee insurer submitted a securities registration statement on Jan. 24 to the Financial Supervisory Service, taking the first step required for going public.
Through its upcoming IPO, the firm will offer 10 percent, or 6,982,160 shares, of its outstanding shares against a 93.85 percent stake held by its majority shareholder, the Korea Deposit Insurance Corp. (KDIC).
Book-building to gather bids from institutional investors is scheduled for Feb. 20 to 26, with the subscription to take place on March 5 to 6. The goal is to list on the stock market by March.
Mirae Asset Securities and Samsung Securities have been designated as underwriters.
The desired IPO price per share ranges from 26,000 won ($18) to 31,800 won, with the total offering size reaching 181.5 billion won to 222 billion won. This represents a 38.6 percent decrease from the previous range of 39,500 won to 51,800 won.
Based on the offering price, the market capitalization has been reduced from the previous range of 2.75 trillion won to 3.61 trillion won, down to a range of 1.81 trillion won to 2.22 trillion won.
Currently, the company, along with the KDIC, is conducting deal road shows in and outside the country.
The event for overseas institutional investors based in Hong Kong and Singapore began on Monday and will continue through Friday.
From Feb. 10 to 28, the event will be held for domestic institutional investors.
“SGI have made efforts to enhance its corporate value through external consulting since April and are committed to successfully completing its stock listing,” an SGI official said. “We are also working to make business management more efficient and implement an attractive shareholder return policy.”