NHN Godo gears up to go public on Kosdaq

Shopping mall solution developer distributes RFPs to brokerages

 

South Korea’s shopping mall solution developer NHN Godo is aiming to go public on the Kosdaq amid booming ecommerce business.

 

NHN Godo sent out a request for proposals (RFP) to domestic major brokerage firms to make its stock market debut, industry sources said on Friday. The company plans to complete the selection process by this month to begin its initial public offering (IPO) preparations in earnest.

The IPO timing has not been decided, but it is likely to speed up the process given that ecommerce companies are starting to get spotlights in the IPO market recently.

 

NHN Godo is an ecommerce company that was separated from the nation’s tech giant Naver in 2003. Its largest shareholder is NHN, with a 90.33% stake. A fund managed by Keistone Partners is the second largest shareholder.

A shopping mall solution refers to a program necessary to operate an online shopping mall. It is a complex service including product management, ordering, and payment. Main clients include retail companies which intend to expand their business from offline to online.

 

NHN Godo recorded revenue of 33.2 billion won ($29 million) and operating income of 5.8 billion won in 2020 thanks to the rapid ecommerce growth. If this trend continues into the first half of this year, the company is likely to be valued at its target level.

Market insiders said NHN Godo may be valued at around 1 trillion won given the rapid growth of ecommerce business. If it is valued at the level, Keistone Partners is expected to generate returns of more than six times invested capital.

 

Keistone Partners acquired 4,945 common shares and 11,927 preferred shares in 2019 through a rights offering. At that time, Keistone Partners valued 100% of NHN Godo at around 150 billion won.

 

Reporting by Cheol Kang, Translated by Kim So-in, The bell, Korea