SEOUL -- South Korean computer game developer Krafton cut its initial public offering price range by more than 10% on Thursday and postponed its listing, surrendering to a demand by regulators to fix the valuation.
Krafton, known for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, or PUBG, said that it will lower its IPO price to a range of 400,000 won ($353) to 498,000 won from its previous band of between 458,000 won and 557,000 won.
The company also cut the number of shares to be raised to 8.7 million from 10.1 million. With the changes, Krafton is now expected to haul in 4.3 trillion won, down from the previous 5.6 trillion won, which was expected to have been South Korea's biggest-ever IPO.
The announcement came one week after the Financial Supervisory Service demanded that Krafton make changes to and resubmit its registration document, calling into question the company's valuation.
Krafton previously calculated that in comparison to 259 global peers including Walt Disney, NetEase and Activision Blizzard. But it eventually chose four rivals in South Korea for its final comparison -- NCSoft, Netmarble, Kakao Games and Pearl Abyss.
"We revised the registration document, adding detailed information," Krafton said in a statement, stressing its "globally recognized intellectual property" in the form of PBUG.
"Krafton will continue to make efforts and innovations to be born again as the best entertainment company based on our success story in the global market," the statement said.
Along with the revision, the company also suspended its IPO schedule to August. Krafton said it will now accept applications from investors for shares on Aug. 2 and 3.
After the IPO, Krafton founder and Board Chairman Chang Byung-gyu will be the largest shareholder with a 14.4% stake, followed by Image Frame Investment, a subsidiary of China's Tencent Holdings, with 13.6%, Krafton said. Chang, however, also has support from friendly investors, including his wife Chung Seung-hye, who have a combined stake of approximately 16% in the company.
The 48-year-old Chang is part of the first generation of South Korea's tech startup entrepreneurs, along with Naver founder Lee Hae-jin and Nexon founder Kim Jung-ju. Chang studied computer engineering at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in the 1990s before establishing startup Neowiz in 1997.
Chang made Krafton successful by launching numerous games, such as Tera and PUBG.
In May, he promised to donate up to 100 billion won worth of his stake to employees. The IPO was at that time seen boosting him into the ranks of South Korea's leading billionaires with the total value of his stock holdings expected to come to 3 trillion won.
Chang owns 7 million shares in Krafton, or a 16.2% stake, according to the refiled registration document. Based on the new IPO price range, that would be worth between 2.8 trillion won and 3.5 trillion won.