HHI shares are up 86% on first day of trading

Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) finished its first day of trading up 86 percent, making it Korea's most valuable shipbuilder.

Hyundai Heavy Industries dockyard in Ulsan [HYUNDAI HEAVY INDUSTRIES]

Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) finished its first day of trading up 86 percent, making it Korea’s most valuable shipbuilder.

Sold in an initial public offering (IPO) for 60,000 won ($51), HHI's shares closed at 111,500 won on Friday after debuting on the Kospi market that morning.

That would give HHI a market capitalization of 9.9 trillion won. It is now No. 42 on the Korea Exchange, beating such big names in the domestic shipbuilding industry as Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, Samsung Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering

Roughly 1.94 trillion worth of HHI shares were traded on Friday, the largest in terms of trading volume. Foreign investors net offloaded 186.5 billion won worth of the shipbuilder while institutions bought 42.2 billion won. Retail investors purchased 147.5 billion won worth.

HHI shares opened at 111,000 won, 85 percent higher than the subscription price but less than the maximum 200 percent jump recently hit by a number of public offerings in Korea. Trading was choppy, with shares falling 18.02 percent in only about two minutes after the market opened.

Then they rose as high as 135,000 won in about 30 minutes, up 125 percent from the subscription price.

HHI went through its two-day public subscription period on Sept. 7 and 8 and attracted over 56 trillion won in deposits. Of 18 million shares the company offered, 25 percent were allocated to retail investors.

That was six largest amount of deposits collected in Korean IPO history. Of recent IPOs, game developer Krafton attracted around 5 trillion won during a two-day public subscription period, while KakaoBank attracted over 58 trillion won.

In 2020, HHI posted a net loss of 431.5 billion won. In the first half of this year, its net loss was 345.5 billion won.

BY SARAH CHEA [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]