Jeju Air Seeks Preliminary Approval For IPO

August 20, 2015

South Korea's largest low-cost carrier Jeju Air has sought preliminary approval from the stock exchange for a domestic initial public offering (IPO) planned for this year, as the airline seeks fresh capital to fuel growth.

A Jeju Air spokesman said the exact size of the offering, and whether it would consist of new issuance or sale of existing shares, had not yet been decided.

The move towards an IPO comes just a week after talks between Jeju and Singapore Airlines for the latter to buy a stake in the low-cost carrier were called off.

Jeju Air, which reported revenues of KRW287 billion won and operating profit of KRW28.8 billion during the first half of this year, said in a statement in July that operating profits had grown nine-fold compared to the KRW3 billion won for the same period last year.

"Jeju Air is expected to secure large amount of funds through listing, and will upgrade their operations including maintenance infrastructure, additional personnel and aircraft purchase," said Lee Ji-yun, analyst at Daishin Securities.

(Reuters)