SpaceX has signalled it will raise more than 100 trillion won ahead of a Nasdaq listing. By contrast, South Korea's initial public offering (IPO) market remains in a cooling trend as the absence of big deals coincides with weak post-listing share performance.

The financial investment industry said on Thursday that SpaceX is carrying out the offering process for a Nasdaq listing on Thursday local time. SpaceX confirmed it will offer 555,555,555 common shares at $135 each, keeping its previously disclosed preliminary offering price unchanged.

The proceeds are about $75 billion, or about 114 trillion won, based on the main offering. The amount raised could increase if an overallotment option is exercised.

South Korea's IPO market, however, is seeing only limited improvement despite stock market strength. The Korea Exchange said there were 14 new listings from January to May, excluding SPACs, REITs and KONEX listings, with cumulative offering proceeds tallied at 979.9 billion won.

In June, Peace Piece Studio additionally listed on the Kosdaq market, but even including it, the number of regular new listings stands at 15 and offering proceeds are about 1.03 trillion won.

A bigger problem than the number of listings is the lack of blockbuster deals. This year, there has been only 1 new listing on the KOSPI, K-Bank. K-Bank was cited as a key IPO in the first quarter with a market capitalisation of 3.4 trillion won at listing, but its offering price was set at the bottom of the indicated range. Since listing, its shares have also been weak, and as of Thursday its price was below its offering price of 8,300 won.

Last year, new KOSPI listings such as LG CNS, Seoul Guarantee Insurance, CK Solution and Dalba Global supported the market. This year, after K-Bank, large KOSPI offerings have dried up, pushing market attention toward small and mid-sized Kosdaq IPOs.

HD Hyundai Robotics, Hanwha Energy, Kakao Mobility and SK Ecoplant are mentioned as potential big deals, but their actual listing schedules remain fluid.

Post-listing share performance is also weighing on investor sentiment. Peace Piece Studio, which listed on June 8, is trading at 9,590 won, down 55.40 percent from its offering price of 21,500 won. Poled is also trading at 3,865 won, down 22.70 percent from its offering price of 5,000 won.

Chaevi, Inventera, Hanpass and Esteem are also trading below their offering prices. Some stocks, such as Cosmo Robotics and Makinarocks, are maintaining high returns relative to their offering prices, but cases of shares retreating after a surge on the first day of trading have continued, strengthening investors' selective approach.

Polarisation in the IPO market is also clear. Cosmo Robotics, Poled and Makinarocks, which listed in May, posted high subscription competition rates and strong share performance on their first day of trading.

Eugene Investment & Securities said the average competition ratio in May for institutional demand forecasting was 1,274 to 1, and the average competition ratio for retail subscriptions was 2,664 to 1, well above the average of the past 9 years. Over the same period, however, the number of listed firms was 3 and proceeds were only 77.5 billion won, leaving the overall market size well below past averages.

The June outlook is also not bright. The market is looking for 5 to 6 IPO candidates in June, far below the past June average of 11. Estimated offering proceeds are also seen at 150 billion to 200 billion won, below the record average June offering proceeds of 287.2 billion won.

The industry cites discussions on duplicate listing regulation, valuation burdens after listing, and potential backlash from shareholders of existing listed companies as factors slowing efforts to pursue large IPOs. The analysis says stock market strength alone makes it hard to assure an IPO market recovery.

Park Jong-sun (박종선), an analyst at Eugene Investment & Securities, said, "Following last month, we expect June will still be sluggish," adding, "The number of IPO candidates expected in June this year is at a significantly low level compared with the historical average for the same month."