South Korea’s Kosdaq IPO market enters a busy first week of November, mixing four listings with six retail subscription periods. Companies that held the top of their hoped-for ranges in institutional book-building diverged sharply from those pushed to the bottom, and Younggwang, Lablup and EST—whose subscription results differed markedly—are all set to list this week.
The most striking contrast is between Dongwon Parts and Baropharm. The two companies take retail orders side by side on Nov. 2-3, but their offer prices point in opposite directions. Dongwon Parts, which makes precision components for semiconductor manufacturing equipment, finalized its offer price at 26,500 won (approximately $20), the top of its 23,000-26,500 won range. It is offering 2.03 million new shares to raise 53.795 billion won (approximately $40.3 million), with proceeds earmarked for expanding plants and production facilities and repaying debt. Samsung Securities is the lead underwriter.
Baropharm, by contrast, which operates an integrated platform helping pharmacies order medicines, check inventory and process returns, priced at 16,400 won (approximately $12), the bottom of its 16,400-20,200 won range. It is offering 1.78 million new shares, with proceeds to fund operations and acquisitions of stakes in other companies. Mirae Asset Securities is the lead underwriter.
Nexi fell below its range entirely. The company, which develops drugs targeting the mechanisms behind resistance to immuno-oncology therapies, set its offer price at 8,000 won (approximately $6), below the bottom of its 10,500-13,000 won range. It is offering 5 million new shares, with subscriptions at Korea Investment & Securities on Nov. 3-4.
Optonics, conversely, locked in the top of its range after overwhelming institutional demand. The maker of precision optical components for inertial navigation systems in defense and aerospace drew 2,317 institutions to its book-building from Oct. 21-27, a competition ratio of 1,201.81-to-1. Its offer price is 12,000 won (approximately $9), the top of its 10,000-12,000 won range, and it is offering a total of 2.2 million shares to raise 26.4 billion won (approximately $19.8 million) for new production lines and hiring. Retail subscriptions run Nov. 5-6 at Korea Investment & Securities.
The retail subscription schedule for this week is as follows.
CompanySubscription PeriodOffer PriceLead UnderwriterBaropharmNov. 2-316,400 won (approximately $12, bottom of range)Mirae Asset SecuritiesDongwon PartsNov. 2-326,500 won (approximately $20, top of range)Samsung SecuritiesNexiNov. 3-48,000 won (approximately $6, below range)Korea Investment & SecuritiesYounggwang YKMCNov. 4-59,400-11,000 won (approximately $7-$8.2, not finalized)Daishin SecuritiesOptonicsNov. 5-612,000 won (approximately $9, top of range)Korea Investment & SecuritiesAL RobotNov. 6 and 915,700-17,600 won (approximately $12-$13, not finalized)Daishin Securities
Note: Younggwang YKMC will finalize its price on Nov. 3 and AL Robot on Nov. 4.
Younggwang YKMC wraps up book-building on Nov. 2 and finalizes its offer price on Nov. 3. The company, which focuses on precision machining, special surface treatment and precision cleaning of core components for semiconductor and display production equipment, is offering 2.3 million shares total—1.8 million new shares and 500,000 existing shares. Its hoped-for range is 9,400-11,000 won.
AL Robot, which makes force and torque sensors and control devices for robots, finishes book-building on Nov. 3, finalizes its price on Nov. 4 and takes subscriptions on Nov. 6 and 9 at Daishin Securities. It plans to offer 2.4 million new shares to raise 37.68 billion-42.24 billion won (approximately $28.2 million-$31.6 million). The company delayed its subscription schedule from October to November after amending its filing on Oct. 12, supplementing disclosures on customer and product concentration risks and the basis for its earnings forecasts. Continued losses—an operating loss of 1.3 billion won (approximately $970,000) last year and 600 million won (approximately $450,000) in the first half of this year—are a variable in investment decisions.
Five more companies are entering new book-building. Dabeeo, a geospatial data company combining AI with satellite, aircraft and drone imagery, runs book-building Nov. 2-6 and finalizes its price on Nov. 9. Its hoped-for range is 12,300-16,600 won, and it is offering 1 million new shares to raise 12.3 billion-16.6 billion won (approximately $9.2 million-$12.4 million). Its schedule, originally set for Oct. 7-14, was pushed back after South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service demanded amendments; the revised filing supplemented disclosures on the gap between estimated and actual results, risks of rising operating costs, and the basis for selecting comparable companies and calculating the offer price. It posted consolidated revenue of about 5.6 billion won (approximately $4.2 million) and an operating loss of about 4.9 billion won (approximately $3.7 million) in the first half of this year.
Hana Aerodynamics also takes institutional orders Nov. 2-6. It handles design and production of tooling for aircraft manufacturing, parts machining and structural assembly, with Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) and U.S.-based Bell as major customers. Its hoped-for range is 4,700-5,700 won, and it is offering 4.4 million new shares to raise 20.68 billion-25.08 billion won (approximately $15.5 million-$18.8 million). First-half revenue was about 20.6 billion won (approximately $15.4 million) and operating profit about 4.8 billion won (approximately $3.6 million), approaching last year’s full-year operating profit of about 5 billion won (approximately $3.7 million), but quarterly results fluctuate widely with major customers’ order and delivery schedules, a risk the company supplemented in a revised filing on Oct. 16.
MBD, which predicts responses to cancer drugs based on three-dimensional cell culture, begins book-building Nov. 2-6. Its hoped-for range is 9,600-11,700 won, with 2 million shares on offer. The company also filed a second amended filing on Oct. 15 and moved its schedule to November; it posted first-half revenue of about 900 million won (approximately $670,000) and an operating loss of about 4.2 billion won (approximately $3.1 million). Its offer price calculation reflects projected 2029 net income, making the pace of service expansion and overseas entry a key variable.
J&TC, a carbon materials company for energy storage systems (ESS) and the hydrogen sector, runs book-building Nov. 3-9. Its hoped-for range is 26,400-31,900 won, with 4.3 million shares total—3.3 million new shares and 1 million existing shares. The offering size of 113.52 billion-137.17 billion won (approximately $85.0 million-$102.7 million) is the largest among this week’s book-building companies. It swung to profit last year with revenue of about 72.4 billion won (approximately $54.2 million) and operating profit of about 21.3 billion won (approximately $16.0 million), and posted first-half revenue of about 60.7 billion won (approximately $45.5 million) and operating profit of about 18.1 billion won (approximately $13.6 million). Daishin Securities is the lead underwriter, with NH Investment & Securities as co-manager.
CNM, founded in 2006 when personnel from LG Electronics’ motor division spun off, also faces institutional evaluation Nov. 3-9. It supplies motors for automotive heating and cooling, steering and braking systems, and home appliances, and is expanding into data center cooling motors, robot joint actuators and defense drone motors. Its hoped-for range is 10,000-13,000 won, and it is offering 2.95 million new shares to raise 29.5 billion-38.35 billion won (approximately $22.1 million-$28.7 million).
First-week trading performance is also in focus. Younggwang lists on Kosdaq on Nov. 2. The company, which supplies ship engine room units and fuel gas supply systems as modules, finalized its offer price at 17,000 won (approximately $13), the top of its 14,000-17,000 won range, and drew a 684.73-to-1 competition ratio in retail subscriptions with about 3.2884 trillion won (approximately $2.5 billion) in deposits. It raised 38.42 billion won (approximately $28.8 million) by issuing 2.26 million new shares.
Lablup lists on Nov. 3. The developer of Backend.AI, a platform that allocates and manages computing resources such as GPUs, priced at 19,000 won (approximately $14), the bottom of its 19,000-22,000 won range. Its institutional book-building ratio was 284.53-to-1, but retail subscriptions came in at just 3.55-to-1. It raised 41.42 billion won (approximately $31.0 million), and 87.3% of the institutional allocation was made without lock-up commitments, which could create selling pressure right after listing.
EST lists on Nov. 4. The company, which handles everything from design to materials, electrode formation and manufacturing of electrostatic chucks that hold semiconductor wafers and display glass substrates in place using static electricity, finalized its offer price at 12,400 won (approximately $9.3), the top of its 10,600-12,400 won range. Its retail subscription ratio was 28.95-to-1, and it raised 27.28 billion won (approximately $20.4 million) by offering 2.2 million new shares. Some 85.98% of the institutional allocation carries no lock-up commitment, so institutional selling in early trading is expected to be a variable, as with Lablup. IM SPAC No. 1 also lists on Nov. 4, having raised 10 billion won (approximately $7.5 million) by issuing 5 million shares at 2,000 won (approximately $1.5); its retail subscription ratio was 1,112.73-to-1.
Lock-up expirations at existing listed companies will also release shares into the market. Trading restrictions on 337,383 shares of Ellies Group lift on Nov. 4 and on 727,065 shares of MS Bio on Nov. 6. Those represent 20.2% and 25.38% of the institutional allocations of their IPO shares, respectively, and become sellable once the 15-day lock-up period ends.
The key variable in this week’s IPO market is the wide temperature gap in institutional book-building. Cases like Optonics, which locked in the top of its range with a competition ratio above 1,000-to-1, coexist with cases like Nexi, which could not even hold its range floor. With companies such as Dabeeo, MBD and AL Robot—whose schedules were delayed by Financial Supervisory Service amendment demands—bunched together, analysts say investors need to weigh amendment histories, whether losses persist and the share of institutional lock-up commitments. Book-building and subscription schedules may be delayed further if corrections to material matters in registration statements postpone their effectiveness.