‘Taegeukgi Mask’ at IPO event in New York Stock Market
Bum-Seok Kim, Chairman of the Board of Directors, ranks ’10 trillion rich’
Photo = AP
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) located on Wall Street in Manhattan, New York, USA at 9:29 a.m. on the 11th (local time). Kim Bum-seok, chairman of the coupang board of directors, took on the central stage with executives such as Kang Seung Kang and Dae-Joon Park, co-CEOs and Chief Financial Officer Gerab Anand. This is because a representative of a company that is just listed is to press the’opening bell’ that announces the opening of the stock market on the same day. NYSE Vice Chairman John Turtle served as the guide.
All Coupang officials, including Chairman Kim, were wearing masks with the Korean flag. As Chairman Kim pressed the bell, cheers poured out.
The large screen behind them showed the coupang delivery staff, open market sellers, and customers. The 10,000th Coupang friend (delivery employee) Kim Dan-ah and the CEO of Betsu Recipe (pet nutrition brand) in Coupang watched the listing event in real time. On the front of the building of the exchange, a large banner and Taegeukgi were hung to celebrate Coupang’s IPO.
Coupang, which entered the New York Stock Market with the ticker code’CPNG’, started trading at $63.50, up 81.43% from the offering price ($35 per share). Roblox, a mobile game company listed the day before, soared 54.4%, and continued the celebration of listing for two days in a row. Coupang ended the deal for $49.25, up 40.71%. The Wall Street Journal said, “This year’s IPO party has begun as funding has flowed to Roblox and Coupang.”
Photo = Yonhap News
Coupang’s IPO stocks total 130 million shares. The market capitalization was recorded at $8.85 billion as of the day. Coupang raised $4.55 billion through this IPO.
NYSE explained that the Coupang IPO is the largest since Uber in May 2019. It also wrote a record that it is the largest foreign-affiliated company listed in the U.S. since Alibaba in September 2014. For successful listing, Chairman Kim and others have held several investment briefing sessions (road shows) for institutional investors on Wall Street.
Photo = REUTERS
With Coupang’s debut in the New York Stock Market, major shareholders have hit a jackpot. Japan’s largest shareholder, Softbank, is making a big smile. It invested a total of $3 billion in 2015 and 2018, securing a 33.1% stake (after listing). Assuming that it is sold based on the closing price on this day, it is possible to make a margin of more than 10 times.
Other major shareholders include venture capital firm Greenox Capital (16.6%), Greenox founder Neil Meta (16.6%), Chairman Kim (10.2%), hedge fund Maverick Holdings (6.4%), and Rose Park Advisors (5.1%). Etc.
Chairman Kim has also been placed in the ranks of the rich. It has only differential voting stocks (class B) that are not traded on the market, but can be converted to trading stocks (class A). Taking this into account, Chairman Kim’s stake is close to $9 billion based on the closing price of the day.
Other executives and employees are also expected to make significant profits. This is because the stock options granted to employees (the right to purchase stocks) amounted to 65.7 million shares as of the end of last year. The average strike price for stock options is $1.95 per share. Even with a simple calculation, you can earn a margin of 20 to 30 times.
New York = Correspondent Jae-Gil Cho [email protected]
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