Bulletins

PUBG maker seeks $25 billion valuation in IPO

If successful, Krafton could achieve the highest valuation of any company debuting on Korea's stock exchange.

PUBG maker seeks $25 billion valuation in IPO

Krafton aims to set its final price on July 9 and make its trading debut on July 22.

Image: PUBG

Krafton, the gaming studio behind PUBG, disclosed in an IPO filing today that it aims to raise up to 5.6 trillion won ($5 billion) by going public. That would yield a total valuation of 28 trillion won ($25 billion), potentially making Krafton the most valuable company to debut on Korea's stock exchange. It would also put Krafton in the realm of Epic Games, which reached a $28 billion valuation through a private funding round closed earlier this year. Roblox, which IPO'd in March, has recently been trading at a market cap around $50 billion.

Krafton aims to set its final price on July 9 and make its trading debut on July 22, per Bloomberg.

PUBG, an online shooter game, has consistently been among the most popular games since its launch. The game has sold over 75 million copies on PC and consoles. PUBG helped pioneer the battle royale mode that has since been implemented in Fortnite, Call of Duty: Warzone and Apex Legends.

Tencent and Krafton founder Chang Byung-gyu both stand to gain significantly from the IPO. Chang will own 14% of Krafton post-IPO, while Tencent will hold just over 13% of the company, according to IPO prospectus data cited by Bloomberg.

One question looming over the IPO is how Krafton will navigate geopolitical tensions between India and China. Tencent, the publisher of the wildly popular PUBG Mobile, was banned from distributing its app in India following a lethal 2020 border dispute between India and China. Krafton has since taken over as the mobile publisher for PUBG in India. It is expected to release Battlegrounds Mobile India, an adapted version of PUBG Mobile, later this week.

Hirsh Chitkara

Hirsh Chitkara ( @HirshChitkara) is a reporter at Protocol focused on the intersection of politics, technology and society. Before joining Protocol, he helped write a daily newsletter at Insider that covered all things Big Tech. He's based in New York and can be reached at hchitkara@protocol.com.

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