Korea’s Largest Payments App More Than Doubles in Debut
- Fintech firm had to delay its IPO by more than two months
- Regulatory crackdown has hurt sentiment for tech shares
This article is for subscribers only.
Kakao Pay Corp., South Korea’s largest mobile payments app, more than doubled in its debut in Seoul, following a rocky path to public markets that was marked by heightened regulatory scrutiny.
Shares of Kakao Pay surged more than 150% in early trading on Wednesday after pricing the offering at 90,000 won. The startup, backed by Jack Ma’s Ant Group Co., raised 1.53 trillion won ($1.3 billion), giving the online payments service a market capitalization of more than 11.7 trillion won before the start of trading.