South Korea’s leading mobile game developer Netmarble Games said Thursday that it will on Friday embark on regulatory procedures to pursue an initial public offering on Korea’s main bourse Kospi.

Netmarble said it will apply for regulatory review of its IPO by the Korea Exchange, with plans to complete the public listing by the year’s end or early next year.


Industry watchers predict Netmarble’s market capitalization could reach up to 10 trillion won ($9.13 billion), given its growth potential. Last year, the firm posted 1.73 trillion won in revenue and 225.3 billion won in operating profit, surpassing the 1 trillion won sales mark for the first time.

Netmarble plans to use the new funds generated by the IPO to pursue strategic mergers and acquisitions and to expand its overseas businesses.

The Korean mobile games maker has already begun looking for companies on the market that could synergize with its existing businesses.

In July, the firm had sought to acquire Israeli-based social casino game maker Playtika, an affiliate of Caesars Interactive Entertainment, though it lost the bid to a Chinese consortium led by Alibaba.

Meanwhile, Netmarble plans to launch “Lineage II:Revolution” for mobile devices in Korea next month. The game, categorized as a “massively multiplayer online role playing game,” or MMORPG, is based on NCSoft’s original online role-playing game “Lineage II.”

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)