South Korea: Seoul Guarantee Insurance raises US$124m in IPO
Source: Asia Insurance Review | Apr 2025
The Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC) has raised KRW181.5bn ($124.4m) through the initial public offering (IPO) of Seoul Guarantee Insurance (SGI).
SGI is the first state-owned company to go public in Korea in 15 years. State-owned KDIC sold 10% (6,982,160 shares) of the total issued shares of SGI. Its holdings of SGI shares are reduced from 93.85% to 83.85%.
SGI’s shares were priced at KRW26,000 each, at the bottom of the desired band of KRW26,000-31,800. The IPO was the second attempted by SGI. The KRW26,000 price was nearly 40% lower than that targeted in the first IPO bid in October 2023.
SGI carried out a bookbuilding exercise on 20-26 February 2025, which attracted 1,509 institutional investors at home and abroad. The public subscription exercise for retail investors was held on 5-6 March.
SGI was formed through a merger of two ailing Korean guarantee insurers, which KDIC bailed out in the wake of the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.
The insurer made its trading debut on the Korea Exchange on 14 March. A