Kakao founder cashes out of $446 mn worth Kakao stock to finance donation

[Photo provided by Kakao Corp.]

Kim Beom-su, founder and chairman of Kakao Corp., and K Cube Holdings fully owned by the tycoon sold off holdings in the operator of Koreans’ most widely used chat platform and No. 5 Kospi stock worth 500 billion won ($446.1 million) to act out on philanthropic commitment.

Kakao said in a disclosure on Friday that Kim and K Cube Holdings divested 4,321,521 shares – 1,728,608 of Kim’s and 2,592,913 of K Cube Holdings’ – at 115,700 on apiece, 4 percent discounted from Thursday's closing price, in an after-hours block deal. The total shares are worth nearly 500 billion won. JP Morgan led the block sale.

The offloading following the relisting of the stock after a split that increased outstanding shares by five-fold pushed the price down 2.5 percent to 117,500 won by midday Friday after a 7.6 percent jump on Thursday when the newly priced shares debuted.

Kim owns 24.95 percent of Kakao shares, including 11.21 percent through K Cube Holdings. The shares are worth 13 trillion won in total. The latest sale will cut his share from 13.74 percent to 13.32 percent and K Cube Holdings’s 11.21 percent to 10.6 percent.

The cash-out will go to meet his promise to give away half of his fortune.

In February, Kim vowed to donate more than half of his wealth. Last month, he became the 220th pledger of the Giving Pledge, a global philanthropic movement launched in 2010 by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda Gates, and Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett.

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