​[쿠팡 美상장] Seven times the value of Coupang… Son Jeong-eui, Kim Bum-seok, executives and employees’Jackpot’

On the 11th, the listing date of Coupang New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), as the public offering price broke through the upper end of the hope price, Coupang shareholders opened a’jackpot’.

Japan’s largest shareholder, Softbank Group (Softbank Vision Fund), founder Kim Bum-seok, chairman of the board of directors, as well as Coupang executives and employees also have a’stock option’.

On the 11th, Coupang’s offering price for 130 million shares (Class A common stock), which is subject to IPO, was confirmed at $35 per share (approximately 39896 won).

It is 10 million more than the original 120 million shares. The public offering price of US$35 is higher than the upper end of the suggested offering price range (US$32-34) that Coupang raised in the data submitted by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) the day before. Based on the public offering price, Coupang’s enterprise value is expected to reach $63 billion (about 71,8263 billion won).

After listing, considering both class A and B common stocks, Softbank 33.1%, Greenox founder Neil Meta 16.6%, founder Kim Bum-seok, chairman of the board of directors 10.2%. The sum of all Class A and Class B stocks totaled about 1.7 billion 6.7 million shares.

Softbank invested 3 billion dollars in Coupang in both 2015 and 2018, and owns 33.1% of the stake. In the past, Coupang’s massive deficit at the time of investment was criticized for “pouring water into the bottomless poison,” but foreign media estimated that SoftBank’s investment profits from Coupang would reach up to eight times.

Neil Meta, a non-executive director of Coupang and founder of Greenox Capital, will secure a 16.6% stake after listing. The value of his stake is also close to 12 trillion won in Korean money.

The value of the stake held by the chairman of the board of directors Kim Bum-suk is $6.93 billion (about 7 trillion won). Chairman Kim does not have ordinary stocks (Class A common stock), but holds 100% of Class B common stock with differential voting rights equal to 29 times that of ordinary stock. After listing, it occupies 76.7% of the voting rights. Class B shares held by Chairman Kim can be converted into Class A shares.

According to the CEO score, it ranks second in the domestic stock code ranking after Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong’s 9,704 billion won (inheritance not reflected). Following Vice Chairman Lee, it is ahead of Hyundai Motor Group’s Honorary Chairman Chung Mong-koo (4,945.7 billion won) and 3rd place Chairman Kim Bum-soo of Kakao (4,806.5 billion won).

According to the listing application document filed by Coupang to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Coupang’s stock option shares are 65.7 million, 3982 shares. The average strike price is $1.95 (about 2200 won). Stock options are the right to buy stocks of a company at a predetermined price regardless of the market price, and employees can reap significant gains when exercising stock options.

It is known that Coupang hired employees and offered stock options as a condition or paid incentives to choose between stock options and cash. Tuan Pam’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) from Uber, who was hired last year, received a stock option worth $27.44 million.

However, some analysts say that among Coupang employees, the number of employees who benefit greatly from the listing will be limited.

It is estimated that many of the employees who joined Coupang in the early days of coupang had stock options at a lower price than the average strike price, but few of the employees at the time were known to remain in the company. Recently, there are not many stocks granted to employees. It is said that many people chose cash instead of stock options at the time of incentive payment.

As of the 5th of this month, Coupang is 200 per person for Coupang delivery employees (Coupang employees) who are working at Coupang and its subsidiaries, regular employees of distribution centers, and regular and contract employees of Levels 1 to 3 who have not been granted stock. It plans to distribute shares worth 10,000 won.

These shares also give 50% of the stock for 1 year from the date of receipt and 50% of the remaining 50% after 2 years of work, so they cannot make a profit right away.