A South Korean film producer whose hits include the 2013 action thriller "Snowpiercer" saw its shares jump 54 percent on its debut on the Singapore stock market on Tuesday. Spackman Entertainment Group Ltd began trading on the Catalist, Singapore's small cap exchange, after raising S$18 million ($14.51 million) from a placement of 69.4 million shares.
English-language film "Snowpiercer", which features Hollywood actors Chris Evans and Tilda Swinton as well as South Korean star Song Kang-Ho, broke South Korean box office records when it was released last year. The company will use the proceeds of the initial public offering to expand operations, including setting up offices in Singapore and Los Angeles, and to buy more production firms.
"The Singapore market is more receptive to a smaller cap company like us and Korean entertainment content is hugely popular here," said Charles Spackman, executive chairman of Spackman Entertainment Group. The Seoul-based film group was created when it bought two South Korean production subsidiaries, Zip Cinema and Opus Pictures in 2012. It has since produced six films as a group.
Last year the company made a net profit of $2.79 million More than half of the placement shares have been taken up by institutional investors, including Havenport Asset Management, Atlantis Investment Management, JF Asset Management and Aegis Portfolios Manager. Canada-based Spackman Equities Group remains the controlling shareholder with 39.1 percent of the company. The stock was trading at 40 cents a share as of 0430 GMT, up from the IPO price of 26 cents, valuing the company at S$158.12 million. It was the second most actively traded stock across the entire Singapore market in terms of volume. PrimePartners acted as sponsor for the listing.