Hyung-Tae Kim, the chief executive officer of Shift Up, striking the drum during the company's listing ceremony at the Korea Exchange on Thursday.

SEOUL (July 11): Shift Up shares rose 33% above their initial public offering (IPO) price in their stock market debut on Thursday, after this year's second-largest South Korean IPO raised 435 billion won (US$313 million).

The opening price gave the gaming company, backed by China's Tencent, a market valuation of about 4.6 trillion won (US$3.33 billion).

South Korea's second major listing this year after HD Hyundai Marine Solution in April could buoy market sentiment and encourage other potential offerings to come to market, analysts said.

South Korea, along with India, has become a stand-out performer in Asia's IPO market this year, as deals elsewhere remain low.

The value of South Korean IPOs has risen nearly 74% to US$1.6 billion in the year-to-date, compared with the same period last year, according to LSEG data.

In comparison, in the Asia-Pacific region including Japan, IPO value was down 65.2% in the first half of 2024, the data showed.

The next potential South Korean listings include online bank K-Bank that applied to Korea Exchange for IPO approval in late June, analysts said.

Hyundai Motor is also looking to raise up to US$3 billion by selling as much as 17.5% of its Indian unit in what could be one of the world's largest listings of the year.

"Mid-sized listings on the KOSPI that had been delayed for nearly two years, are resuming recently ... in a positive sign," said analyst Choi Jong-kyung at Heungkuk Securities.

Shift Up said the retail portion of its IPO was oversubscribed more than 300 times.

The games maker reported operating profit of 111 billion won in 2023, on revenue of 169 billion won.

Analysts said Shift Up has only about 300 employees and utilises various efficient three-dimensional, two-dimensional and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to make its games, making its cost structure attractive.

The company plans to use IPO proceeds to work on a new game project.

It will also expand current titles such as mobile and PC game "Goddess of Victory: Nikke" that booked 255 billion won in sales since launching in late 2022, and maintains steady user traffic, as well as "Stellar Blade" which hit No. 1 in Japan's PlayStation download rankings and No. 2 in North America after its April release, analysts said.

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