Krafton

Game developer Krafton (formerly Bluehole) was founded in 2007 by Chang Ben Gyu. In the same year, the company introduced the game PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG), which became one of the most successful video games in history. By July 2021, Krafton operates several studios that develop games for smartphones, computers and consoles, but PUBG accounts for the largest part of the company's sales and profit.

History

2021: Holding the second largest IPO in the history of South Korea

At the end of July 2021, Krafton held the second largest IPO in the history of the country. Supported by Tencent Holdings, the game developer behind the popular game PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG), and some of its shareholders will earn 4.3 trillion won (almost $3.8 billion) on the listing on the Korean Exchange, the sale price of 8.65 million shares of the company is estimated at 498 thousand won apiece.

The largest shareholder of Krafton is the founder of the company, Chang Ben Gyu, his share is 17%. It is followed by the Chinese investment holding company Tencent Holdings, which owns 16% through a subsidiary.

Game developer Krafton held the second largest IPO in the history of South Korea

According to Reuters, this is the second largest IPO in South Korea in history after the Samsung Life Insurance IPO in 2010 in the amount of 4.9 trillion won. Krafton Chief Financial Officer Pe Don Keun said about 70% of the funds raised will be used for global mergers and acquisitions, adding that high transaction prices in the global gaming industry have prevented this in the past. An example of this is the purchase of Microsoft company ZeniMax Media for $7.5 billion.

Krafton's successful PUBG game was released in 2017. Sales of PC and console versions exceeded 70 million copies, and the mobile version, according to the company itself, downloaded approximately 600 million times.

According to Bloomberg, after entering the exchange, the Krafton gaming studio may be among the largest gaming companies in the world, ahead of the publisher of Take-Two Interactive games from the United States, whose capitalization is $22.6 billion, and Japanese game developer Bandai Namco, which is estimated at $19.7 billion.^[1]

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