Pinkfong, the South Korean youngsters’s leisure firm behind the Child Shark phenomenon, noticed its share value soar on its inventory market debut on Tuesday (November 18), earlier than falling again down to shut 9% above its IPO value.
The corporate’s inventory, which is now buying and selling on South Korea’s small-cap Kosdaq market, jumped to 61,500 received (USD $42) in intraday buying and selling, marking an almost 62% leap from its opening value of KRW 38,000 ($26). It ended the buying and selling day at KRW 41,550, up about 9.4%.
Finally, the IPO raised $53 million, with demand for the inventory at one level 600 instances greater than the obtainable shares, Bloomberg reported.
It comes within the wake of a collection of profitable listings on the Kosdaq, analysts instructed Reuters.
Child Shark, which has been irritating mother and father since 2016, is the most-watched video on YouTube of all time, with greater than 16 billion performs. The observe has been Diamond-certified by the RIAA within the US, and 5x Platinum-certified by the BPI within the UK. It has simply wanting 1 billion streams on Spotify.
Pinkfong leveraged Child Shark’s success to create a Child Shark TV present, Huge Present! (co-produced with Nickelodeon Animation Studio), and to create new characters like Bebefinn and Sealook. Bebefinn is now a bigger content material income generator than Child Shark, Bloomberg reported citing Pinkfong CEO Kim Min-seok.
Now Pinkfong – which signed a publishing deal with Sony Music in 2020 protecting its whole youngsters’s music catalog – goals to increase into leisure for older children and youths as properly, Forbes reported. Its IPO prospectus mentioned it goals to create three new IPs by 2028. The corporate additionally goals to open pop-up shops worldwide.
Kim co-founded the corporate in 2010 with Son Dongwoo, now Pinkfong’s Chief Know-how Officer. Kim’s father is called the top of Samsung Publishing, which owned 16.8% of Pinkfong previous to the IPO, per Bloomberg. Kim himself held 18% of Pinkfong previous to the inventory market debut.
Whether or not or not the corporate’s rising inventory value can preserve momentum will rely upon future earnings efficiency, Zian Funding Administration CIO Kim Dojoon mentioned.
“The important thing will probably be how successfully the corporate can monetize its present IPs — Child Shark, Bebefinn — and the way properly its new IPs carry out.”
“Their top-line development and income subsequent yr will probably be pushed by licensed and merchandise items gross sales of their well-liked IP merchandise…”
Korea Funding & Securities
Pinkfong clocked an working revenue of KRW 18.8 billion final yr, equating to $13.8 million on the common alternate price for 2024. Its revenues got here in at KRW 97.4 billion ($71.4 million).
Analysts at Korea Funding & Securities count on Pinkfong to submit steady income development on the again of worldwide enlargement and IP diversification.
“Their top-line development and income subsequent yr will probably be pushed by licensed and merchandise items gross sales of their well-liked IP merchandise even when their revenue development slows this yr on account of elevated bills,” they wrote, as cited by the Monetary Instances.Music Enterprise Worldwide
