Rableup 韓交所首日交易劇烈波動，股價收跌 25.16%

Rableup, an artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure software company, experienced extreme volatility on its first day of trading on the KOSDAQ, with its shares falling by more than half from their intraday peak. The pricing methodology that valued a company with annual revenue of just 6.7 billion won last year at as much as 330 billion won has also come under renewed scrutiny.

Rableup shares closed at 14,220 won on the KOSDAQ on November 3, down 25.16% from their initial public offering (IPO) price of 19,000 won.

The shares opened at 19,000 won, matching the IPO price, before surging to an intraday high of 28,350 won, up 49% from the offering price. Selling pressure subsequently intensified, pushing the stock as low as 13,310 won, a 53% decline from its peak.

Trading volume reached 37.32 million shares, with turnover totaling 784.7 billion won. The trading value was 18.9 times the company's total IPO proceeds of 41.4 billion won. Given that approximately 5.17 million shares were available for trading immediately after listing, the figures indicate heavy short-term trading activity. Retail investors who bought near the intraday peak flooded online investment forums with complaints as speculative traders moved into the stock on its debut.

Rableup's valuation process had already faced considerable hurdles ahead of its listing. In its initial securities registration statement submitted in August, the company proposed an IPO price range of 20,000 won to 23,000 won. The implied market capitalization was approximately 290.8 billion won to 334.5 billion won.

However, following a request from the Financial Supervisory Service to revise its registration statement, Rableup lowered the proposed price range to 19,000 won to 22,000 won.

A total of 1,129 institutional investors participated in the bookbuilding process last month. Of these, 553, or 49%, submitted bids below the bottom of the proposed range of 19,000 won. The average bid price, weighted by the number of shares requested, was 17,889 won.

Rableup and its lead underwriter, NH Investment & Securities, ultimately set the IPO price at 19,000 won, the bottom of the indicative range. The subscription ratio for retail investors was also relatively low at 3.55 to 1. Institutional investors' lock-up commitments accounted for just 2.09% of shares requested, based on volume.

The company's valuation methodology also became a point of controversy. Rableup reported revenue of 6.7 billion won and operating profit of 700 million won last year, while posting a net loss of 1.5 billion won. Its market capitalization of 276 billion won at the IPO price was equivalent to 41 times its annual revenue.

The company and its underwriter said the valuation was based not on current earnings but on projected net income of 21.169 billion won in 2029. They discounted that figure at an annual rate of 15% to derive a present value of 12.9 billion won, then applied the peer group's average price-to-earnings ratio (PER) of 33.6 times. The three comparable companies were South Korea's WISEnut and Suresofttech, and U.S.-based Nutanix. Their respective PER multiples were 22.4 times, 18.6 times and 59.8 times.

Rableup's own earnings projections have also drawn criticism for being overly optimistic. The company expects revenue of 9.9 billion won this year, rising to 57.9 billion won by 2029. That would require revenue to increase approximately 8.6-fold in four years compared with last year's level.

Rableup plans to use the proceeds from its listing to build AI accelerator testing infrastructure, fund research and development, and expand its overseas business.

The company's flagship product is Backend.AI, software designed to efficiently allocate and manage high-performance AI computing resources, including graphics processing units (GPUs) and neural processing units (NPUs). Rableup received an A rating from both of two external technology assessment agencies in evaluations conducted for its technology-based listing.