Bloomberg -- Scope Chungju Plant Co., a maker of battery parts used in electric vehicles, plunged in Seoul even after cutting its IPO by half, joining other Asian companies that have tanked in their initial session this week.
The final price of the deal was lower than the bottom of the initial range, as they were sold at 60,000 won each in an initial public offering that raised 432 billion won $302 million.
According to Bloomberg-compiled data, the dive in South Korea's second-largest IPO since the beginning of the year is set to be the worst first-day performance for a company that raised over $100 million through a listing in Seoul. It comes after yesterday savage 34% plunge for Chinese electric-vehicle maker Zhejiang Leapmotor Technology in Hong Kong, the biggest first-day drop for an IPO of that size or larger in the city.
WCP, as the company is known, makes separators used in electric-car batteries, and Samsung SDI Co is a main client of South Korea's Samsung Group. It also supplies products to LG Energy Solution and Sony Group Corp.
Kim Jinsung, a fund manager at Quad Investment Management Co., said he decided not to join the IPO because of the low commitment from institutional investors, as well as existing shareholders, due to the short lock-up period they received in the offering. He said there would be a lot of selling pressure on the day of debut.
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