Elice shares fall 32% in Seoul trading debut
The South Korean AI data center company raised 201.1 billion won in an IPO whose retail allocation was 400 times oversubscribed.
South Korean AI data center operator Elice ended its first trading session on the Kosdaq at 61,500 won, down 32% from its IPO price. The offering was the exchange’s largest this year.
Reuters, citing a company filing, reported that Elice raised 201.1 billion won by issuing 2.22 million shares. The offer price of 90,500 won was at the upper end of its range. Trading began at 75,700 won, and the shares touched 58,000 won before recovering some ground.
The decline followed heavy demand from individual investors. Bloomberg reported that subscriptions for the retail allocation were 400 times the available shares, with deposits totaling about 10.3 trillion won. Retail buyers were allocated 25% of the offering, valued at about 50.3 billion won.
Elice began in 2015 as a coding education platform founded by three KAIST doctoral students. It subsequently expanded into AI cloud infrastructure and now constructs modular data centers designed for dense AI chip clusters. Bloomberg, citing its prospectus, reported first-half revenue of 34.4 billion won, up 200%, and operating profit of 10.3 billion won.
Chief executive Jae Won Kim told Bloomberg that the proceeds would fund additional AI data centers both in South Korea and overseas. The debut also coincided with broader stock market losses: Business Insider reported that the Kospi finished 4% lower.
