[DigitalToday reporter Sangyeop Oh (오상엽)] After the failure to secure a SpaceX IPO allocation, South Korea's financial investment industry is being tested over how it markets overseas large initial public offerings. OpenAI and Anthropic are cited as the next major overseas IPO candidates.

On June 17, the financial investment industry said OpenAI and Anthropic recently submitted confidential S-1 registration statements to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Anthropic said it submitted a draft confidential S-1 for a common stock IPO on June 1 local time. OpenAI also announced it submitted a confidential S-1 on June 8 local time.

The actual listing timing, offering size and offer price have not been decided. Filing a confidential S-1 is a step to undergo SEC review and does not mean a company will list immediately.

OpenAI said it has not yet decided on the timing of a listing. Anthropic said whether it proceeds with an IPO may change depending on market conditions and the outcome of the SEC review.

The market views OpenAI and Anthropic, following SpaceX, as the next major event for global stock markets. OpenAI is leading the generative AI market with ChatGPT, and Anthropic is rapidly expanding in the enterprise AI market based on its AI model Claude.

The issue is marketing to South Korean investors. With domestic investment demand confirmed during the SpaceX IPO subscription process, brokers and asset managers are likely to continue launching or promoting related products when OpenAI and Anthropic hold IPOs.

But marketing that uses major overseas IPOs is expected to be more conservative than before in the wake of the SpaceX case.

The Financial Supervisory Service is conducting an inspection of Mirae Asset Securities related to the failure to secure a SpaceX IPO allocation. The watchdog began an on-site review of Mirae Asset Securities on June 5 and converted it into a formal inspection on June 9. The initial focus of the review was the registration process for individual and corporate professional investors who were eligible to subscribe to the SpaceX IPO offering.

Because some investor protection measures for professional investors may be limited compared with general investors, the review focused on whether risks were adequately explained.

After the allocation failure occurred, the scope of the inspection is seen expanding to the overall subscription solicitation process, investor disclosures and marketing. Mirae Asset Securities pursued SpaceX IPO subscriptions but ultimately did not receive a single share.

Authorities are said to be examining whether investors were sufficiently informed that the amount could change during the lead underwriter's final allocation process.

A key issue is whether expected allocations or investment opportunities were emphasized when the allocated amount had not been confirmed. Mirae Asset Group Chairman Park Hyeon-ju (박현주) previously disclosed a plan in an April interview with a media outlet, saying he expected a significant amount of SpaceX IPO shares and would seek to provide opportunities to as many investors as possible.

The watchdog may also examine whether actual subscription solicitation and internal control systems were appropriate after executives' remarks.

The asset management industry is also being affected. Korea Investment Management promoted that it would include SpaceX IPO shares in its ACE U.S. space tech active ETF, but responded through market purchases after it failed to secure the IPO shares.

Investor complaints grew because inclusion via IPO allocation and market purchases can differ in investment timing, purchase price and expected returns.

The watchdog plans to draw up improvement measures in the third quarter after discussing related issues in a task force on improving advertising rules for financial investment firms that was launched in April.

The move follows an overheating competition in product advertising by financial investment firms and an increase in marketing using social media and finfluencers, which has heightened the need for internal review and post-management.

As a result, when promoting products related to future large overseas IPOs such as OpenAI and Anthropic, it will likely be necessary to provide more detailed disclosures on allocation likelihood and failure risk, the possibility of switching to market purchases, and the scope of protections under professional investor registration.

In particular, expressions that investors could take as confirmed facts, such as "planned IPO inclusion" and "possible to secure shares", are likely to decline.

An official in the financial investment industry said, "After the SpaceX listing, it has become difficult to use major overseas IPOs as a simple marketing point," adding, "The more investor interest a company draws, the more it will become necessary to first explain the actual allocation structure and investment risks."