Key Sentence:
- Chang Byung-Gyu, the organizer of South Korean web-based game engineer Krafton.
- Saw his total assets more than triple to $2.9 billion as his organization made its securities exchange debut on Tuesday.
Krafton’s stock shut down at 454,000 won ($395), an offer on the Korea Exchange, down from its first sale of stock cost of 498,000 won. Last month, Krafton had reduced its designated IPO cost by about 10% get-togethers’ monetary controller requested that the organization change its plan, following worries that its valuation was excessively high. Late feelings of dread of an administrative clampdown on web-based gaming in China, a significant market for Krafton, hosed financial backer excitement.
Despite the hang, the organization behind the hit game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) has a market capitalization from 22.2 trillion won ($19.3 billion), given Tuesday’s stock cost, more than some other Korea-recorded game engineer.
Chang, 48, is the director of Krafton and its biggest investor, with about a 14% stake in his name. His significant other, Jung Seung-Hye, holds an almost 1% stake in the organization. Forbes gauges Chang and his important other’s total assets at $2.9 billion, up from $990 million not long before the IPO. Chang previously made it onto Korea’s 50 Richest rundowns in 2019 with total assets of $890 million. He turned into a wealthy person recently and appeared on the World’s Billionaires record in April.
Krafton raised around 4.3 trillion won ($3.8 billion) in its buoy, making it the second-biggest IPO in Korea after Samsung Life Insurance’s 4.9 trillion won posted in 2010. The organization says it intends to utilize most of the returns to gain game designers.
Other internet gaming organizations have as of late made sizable acquisitions, as more individuals remain at home also mess around amid pandemic-related lockdowns and social removing limitations. Last week, Netmarble reported that it is purchasing Hong Kong-based SpinX Games for $2.2 billion. What’s more, last month, Chinese gaming monster Tencent, which is Krafton’s second-biggest shareholder.
Based in Seongnam, south of Seoul, Krafton revealed that income rose 53.6% to 1.67 trillion won ($1.4 billion) in the schedule year 2020, while overall gain multiplied to 556.3 billion won ($471 million). Practically all—96.5%—of its income came from its blockbuster endurance shooter series PUBG, first delivered in 2017.
A portable rendition of the game has been downloaded more than 1 billion times, making it the most downloaded game application in over 150 nations, as per Krafton’s IPO plan, referring to information from application research firm Sensor Tower.
Chang, a graduate degree in software engineering from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, established Krafton (some time ago named Bluehole) in 2007. Already, he found and drove web index startup 1noon in 2005 and offered it to Korean web organization NHN a year after the fact for $36.5 million.