Head of Research, IPOs & Placements, Aequitas Research

Sumeet Singh

Head of Research, IPOs & Placements

IPOs and Placements coverage across Asia Pacific

Aequitas Research

We cover all listing across the Asia Pacific along with follow-up placements. As of Dec 2020, our team had covered 539 IPOs with a hit rate of 73.5% and 685 placements with a hit rate of 66.8%.

We combine fundamental bottom-up views with our proprietary quantitative framework to provide a holistic coverage across new listings and placements. Our coverage includes pre-IPO notes before the deal is launched, follow-up analysis once the deal is live and post-listing trading analysis as well.

Equity Capital Markets

Lionheart Studio  / Equity Capital Markets

<ul>
<li>
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/lionheart-studio-corporation" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:36417:1" rel="noopener">Lionheart Studio (426630 KS)</a>, a game development studio based in South Korea,  aims to raise around US$420m via its South Korean IPO.</li>
<li>The company is majority owned by <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/kakao-games-corp" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:26730:1" rel="noopener">Kakao Games Corp (293490 KS)</a>, which after having recently hiked its stake, owned 54.94% of the company prior to listing.  </li>
<li>In this note, we will talk about the positive aspects of the deal.</li>
</ul>



Lionheart Studio (426630 KS), a game development studio based in South Korea,  aims to raise around US$420m via its South Korean IPO.
The company is majority owned by Kakao Games Corp (293490 KS), which after having recently hiked its stake, owned 54.94% of the company prior to listing.  
In this note, we will talk about the positive aspects of the deal.


Lion Heart Studio Pre-IPO - The Positives - Got One Hit

Korea/Asia, Events, IPOs, Douglas Research Advisory

Douglas Kim

Korea/Asia, Events, IPOs

Event-Driven

<ul>
<li>Saudi Arabia's Savvy Games Group has a grand ambition to invest in the global gaming industry. It recently announced that it will invest US$37.8 billion in the global gaming industry.</li>
<li>There has been a sharp appreciation of the USD and Riyal versus JPY which could help to accelerate more M&amp;As of Japanese game companies by SGG.</li>
<li>Saudi Arabia's aggressive push to expand into the global gaming industry could aid this sector in the coming months as it could result in further major M&amp;As in this sector.</li>
</ul>


Saudi Arabia's Savvy Games Group has a grand ambition to invest in the global gaming industry. It recently announced that it will invest US$37.8 billion in the global gaming industry.
There has been a sharp appreciation of the USD and Riyal versus JPY which could help to accelerate more M&amp;As of Japanese game companies by SGG.
Saudi Arabia's aggressive push to expand into the global gaming industry could aid this sector in the coming months as it could result in further major M&amp;As in this sector.


Saudi Arabia Gaming: Plans to Invest $38 Billion in Global Game Industry

<ul>
<li>Our base case valuation of Lionheart Studio is a target price of 19,362 won per share, which is 46% lower than the low end of the IPO price range.</li>
<li>Our IPO valuation assumes a 7.2x EV/EBITDA (comps' average) using 2023 estimated EBITDA of 145 billion won for the company.</li>
<li>All in all, we believe there is a strong probability of Lionheart Studio being forced to lower its IPO price range in order to attract more investors. </li>
</ul>


Our base case valuation of Lionheart Studio is a target price of 19,362 won per share, which is 46% lower than the low end of the IPO price range.
Our IPO valuation assumes a 7.2x EV/EBITDA (comps' average) using 2023 estimated EBITDA of 145 billion won for the company.
All in all, we believe there is a strong probability of Lionheart Studio being forced to lower its IPO price range in order to attract more investors. 


Private Capital Markets

<ul>
<li>Shift Up is a game developer in Korea that recently reached the unicorn status. </li>
<li>The company is expected to launch Goddess of Victory: Nikke mobile game and Eve console game on PS5 sometime in late 2022/early 2023. </li>
<li>The CEO of Shift Up Kim Hyung-tae previously worked as an art director at NCsoft. Shift Up is expected to complete an IPO in 2023. </li>
</ul>


Shift Up is a game developer in Korea that recently reached the unicorn status. 
The company is expected to launch Goddess of Victory: Nikke mobile game and Eve console game on PS5 sometime in late 2022/early 2023. 
The CEO of Shift Up Kim Hyung-tae previously worked as an art director at NCsoft. Shift Up is expected to complete an IPO in 2023. 


Shift Up Corp - A Rising Unicorn in the Korean Game Industry

Equity Bottom-Up

<ul>
<li>In the past several days, there have been numerous news accounts about the Indian government cracking down on Krafton's Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) game.</li>
<li>We believe there are several reasons why Indian government is cracking down on BGMI including concerns about this game potentially leading to greater violence among children and ties to Tencent.</li>
<li>At current valuation levels, we like a pair trade between Krafton (go short) and NCSOFT Corp (036570 KS) (go long).</li>
</ul>


In the past several days, there have been numerous news accounts about the Indian government cracking down on Krafton's Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) game.
We believe there are several reasons why Indian government is cracking down on BGMI including concerns about this game potentially leading to greater violence among children and ties to Tencent.
At current valuation levels, we like a pair trade between Krafton (go short) and NCSOFT Corp (036570 KS) (go long).


A Pair Trade Between Krafton & NCsoft (India's Crackdown on Krafton's BGMI)

South Korea

NCSOFT Corporation develops and markets on-line games that enable users to play over the Internet and computer software, such as web editing software.  The Company also designs and constructs databases, Intranet, and commercial Internet access systems.

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NCSOFT Corp (036570 KS)

Lion Heart Studio Pre-IPO - The Positives - Got One Hit

Lionheart Studio, a game development studio based in South Korea, aims to raise around US$420m via its South Korean IPO. The company is majority...

Sumeet Singh

Saudi Arabia Gaming: Plans to Invest $38 Billion in Global Game Industry

Saudi Arabia's Savvy Games Group has a grand ambition to invest in the global gaming industry. It recently announced that it will invest US$37.8...

Douglas Kim

Lionheart Studio IPO Valuation Analysis

Our base case valuation of Lionheart Studio is a target price of 19,362 won per share, which is 46% lower than the low end of the IPO price range.

Douglas Kim

Shift Up Corp - A Rising Unicorn in the Korean Game Industry

Shift Up is a game developer in Korea. It is expected to launch Goddess of Victory: Nikke mobile game and Eve console game on PS5 sometime in late...

Douglas Kim

A Pair Trade Between Krafton & NCsoft (India's Crackdown on Krafton's BGMI)

We believe there are several reasons why Indian government is cracking down on Krafton's BGMI including concerns about this game leading to greater...

Douglas Kim

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