Kakao Pay employees who own shares in their own company each lost an average 20 million won ($15,600) due to the mobile payment firm’s stock price plunge since January, reports said Sunday.

The company’s employee stock ownership association purchased a total 3.4 million shares in Kakao Pay at the price of 90,000 won per share prior to its initial public offering on Nov. 3 last year, according to a regulatory filing.

Documents show that some 800 employees received an average 4,005 shares each, valued at 360.4 million won at the time of the firm’s market debut. It had set the IPO price at 90,000 won per share, opened at the price of 180,000 won and closed higher at 193,000 won on its first day.

But Kakao Pay employees have each lost some 20 million won after the company’s share price plunged over a slew of risks since January, the reports said. The mobile payment operator hit a 52-week-low in terms of closing price on Friday with 85,100, closing 3.73 percent lower from the previous session.

Kakao Pay shares lost its rally after it was found in January that former CEO Ryu Young-joon and seven other executives offloaded 90 billion won of company shares by exercising stock option in December, only a month after the company went public.

Furthermore, the firm’s second-largest shareholder Alipay dumped 5 million shares -- about 10 percent of the total stake it holds in Kakao Pay -- in a block deal, sending the payment platform operator’s price down 15.57 percent from the previous closing to 89,500 won on Wednesday. Alipay remains the second-largest shareholder, with a 34.72 percent stake in the Korean firm.

Members of Kakao Pay’s employee stock ownership association are legally obligated to keep their shares until Nov. 3 this year, a year since the firm’s IPO launch.

(mkjung@heraldcorp.com)