Netmarble Games IPO raises $2.3bn
Second-biggest share sale in South Korea, thanks partly to the success of high-end mobile title Lineage II: Revolution
Asian mobile giant Netmarble has generated $2.3bn (£1.8bn) with its IPO, readying the firm for a series of significant acquisitions.
Reuters reports the share sale was the second-biggest ever recorded in Netmarble's home market of South Korea with Netmarble claiming it has sold 17m shares, which equates to roughly 20% of the company. Shares were sold at 157,000 Korean Won (or £107) each.
The firm came just short of the $2.4bn it estimated it would make through the IPO.
A large part of Netmarble's success was not just its "ability to consistently publish hit games in the highly competitive mobile sector", as Reuters puts it, but also the accomplishments of one specific title - Lineage II: Revolutions.
Released only in South Korea back in December, the Unreal Engine-powered mobile MMO was named as the highest grossing game in the world back in February, according to figures from SuperData.
Netmarble is also based in the world's fourth biggest games market, behind only China, the US and Japan.
The company has previously said it plans to combine money raised from the IPO with loans and its own cash flow to spend up to $4.4bn on acquisitions. Specifically, Netmarble hopes to purchased games developers and IP holders that will help expand its share of the games market in North America and Europe. It hopes to become a global top five games company by 2020.