Kbank cancels plan to go public, aims to try again next year

Kbank once again canceled its plan to go public due to weak demand.

Kbank headquarters building in central Seoul [KBANK]

Kbank once again canceled its plan to go public due to weak demand.

The internet-only bank on Friday said that it would discontinue its initial public offering (IPO) process as demand fell short of its expectations during the book building period from Oct. 10 to 16. The bank plans to go for a relaunch early next year.

This was Kbank’s second attempt at an IPO after its first plan was scrapped in 2022 due to weak investor sentiment amid interest rate hikes.

Kbank had aimed to open subscriptions for a total of 82 million shares. One of main points of concerns pointed out by investors was its high price range of 9,500 won ($6.94) to 12,000 won, which was set based on an average price-to-book (P/B) ratio of 2.56 of KakaoBank and overseas internet banks in Japan and the United States. As of Friday, KakaoBank’s P/B ratio stood at 1.70.

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