Elice Group (Elice) listed on Korea’s Kosdaq on October 20 after raising KRW201.1 billion ($152 million) in the exchange’s largest initial public offering (IPO) of 2026.
The Seoul-based company service provider sold 2.22 million new shares at KRW90,500 each, the top of its KRW70,400 to KRW90,500 range, according to an October 13 post-issuance report.
Institutional bookbuilding was 388 times oversubscribed, while the retail tranche was 408 times oversubscribed. Mirae Asset Securities underwrote 80% of the offering and Samsung Securities the remainder.
State-owned Korea Development Bank retained 5.21% shares of Elice following the listing, according to an October 21 stocks-holding disclosure.
The neocloud service provider plans to allocate about KRW200.9 billion of the proceeds to facilities, primarily expanding the artificial intelligence (AI) data centre and cloud infrastructure supporting its GPU services.
Strong subscription demand did not translate into a positive debut. Elice shares closed 32% below the offer price on their first trading day, however the share price rebounded by 30% and 17% in following two days, respectively, then gaining a further 0.6% to close at KRW94,200 on October 23.
Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote, said Elice’s first-day decline reflected wider pressure on technology companies as investors questioned whether the returns from AI infrastructure could justify its substantial capital requirements.
Ozkardeskaya also pointed to growing credit stress among smaller AI infrastructure providers, emphasising that companies with stronger balance sheets could gain at the expense of smaller competitors.
Elice entered the public market after turning profitable, reporting a KRW10.3 billion operating profit in the first half of 2026, following an operating loss in 2024.
The stock price swing came amid heightened volatility in Korean equities since June, as investors continued to reassess the sustainability of AI spending and semiconductor valuations.
Apac AI infrastructure listings facing tougher scrutiny
Elice’s volatility comes alongside several delays or even withdrawal of AI infrastructure IPOs across Asia Pacific.
SK Hynix said on October 23 that it had halted a potential US listing of Solidigm, its NAND flash memory subsidiary. The transaction had faced regulatory scrutiny that a separate listing could dilute the interests of shareholders in the listed parent and complicate SK Group’s ownership structure.
The memory chip giant cited “recent capital market conditions and share price trends”, while saying it would continue to evaluate alternative funding for Solidigm’s expansion.
Singapore-based Day One Data Centers is reportedly reviewing its fundraising target for its planned US IPO, following the upsize of its $7.2 billion multi-currency syndicated financing in Malaysia.
The failed offering of Australia’s Firmus Technologies has also attracted regulatory scrutiny, with local authoriies gathering information and making inquiries into the cancelled offering.
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