South Korea's largest games maker goes public

South Korea's biggest mobile games maker Netmarble went public in Seoul Friday as it seeks overseas acquisitions, with the firm valued at around $12 billion. Netmarble's Lineage 2 is a hugely popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) with a mediaeval setting.
The firm's shares closed at 162,000 won (about US$143) on the Korea Stock Exchange, giving it a market capitalisation of 13.7 trillion won ($12.1 billion), well ahead of rival games publisher NCSoft Corp, which is valued at 7.7 trillion won. Netmarble sold 20 percent of its shares in the flotation and said earlier that it would use up to 1.68 trillion won of the proceeds for mergers and acquisitions. "Netmarble's IPO is the new beginning and the company will make an effort to become a global game company," CEO Kwon Young-sig told reporters on Friday.