Doosan Robotics shares double in trading debut

Doosan Robotics' shares nearly doubled on its first day as a public company, but fell short of expectations for the largest IPO in Korea this year.

A robot bangs on a drum celebrating the listing of Doosan Robotics, a collaborative robot supplier, at the Korea Exchange in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Thursday. [DOOSAN ROBOTICS]

Doosan Robotics closed at 51,400 won ($38) on its first day as a public company, nearly doubling its offering price, yet fell short of investors’ lofty expectations for this year’s largest initial public offering (IPO) deal.

With a market capitalization of 3.33 trillion won, the company beat Kosdaq-listed Rainbow Robotics to become the largest robotics stock in Korea. Doosan Robotics is the second company to go public on Kospi this year following Nexteel, which was listed on Aug. 21.

The robotics supplier opened at 59,100 won on the main Kospi bourse Thursday, up 127.3 percent from its offering price of 26,000 won, which was set at the upper end of the company’s suggested price band.

Its share price peaked at 67,600 won shortly after the market opening, up 160 percent from its initial offering price, but traded weaker through the rest of the day after foreign investors sold off a large number of shares earlier in the day, dropping as low as 46,450 won mid-trading.

The price rebounded later that day and closed at 51,400 won, up 97.69 percent from the offering price. Its trading volume stood at 1.25 trillion won.

Starting June, the financial authorities raised the limit on the quotation price for newly-issued stocks to a range between 60 and 400 percent of the price initially offered on the first trading day.

Doosan issued 16.2 million shares through the IPO. Foreign investors dumped a net 91.2 billion won worth of Doosan Robotics stock, while institutions offloaded 119.3 billion won, according to the Korea Exchange. Retail investors bought a net 273 billion won.

Doosan Robotics’ IPO garnered strong interest from the market, attracting 33 trillion won in subscription deposits from retail investors. In the institutional book building ahead of the listing, a total of 1,920 institutional investors including sovereign wealth funds and BlackRock participated, applying for more than 2.4 billion shares combined.

Doosan Robotics is Korea’s largest collaborative robot supplier. Proceeds from the initial public offering will be used to improve production capacity and research and development capabilities, the company said.

Doosan Robotics posted an operation loss of 13.2 billion won last year, and 45 billion won in revenue.

Meanwhile, its parent company Doosan declined 19.4 percent to 91,800 won on Thursday, as the IPO of its key subsidiary pushed down the holding company’s share price in the market.

Other robotics stocks, which have been trading strong as of late, slipped in the market that day as well. Rainbow Robotics closed at 142,000 won, down 8.39 percent from the previous trading day.

BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]