Nexon Company, the Asian developer of online games such as "Dragon Nest," plans to raise as much as 100bn yen ($1.3bn) in an initial public offering, two people with direct knowledge of the matter, said. Nexon hired Nomura Holdings Incorporated, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Incorporated to manage the offering in Japan, the United States and Europe, the people, who declined to be identified before an announcement, said. The game maker will begin the IPO as soon as this week, and expects to list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange as early as December 12, Bloomberg quoted them as saying. The company is valued at about 600bn yen, the people said. The IPO would be the biggest by a Japanese company this year and the second largest in the technology industry worldwide in 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Tokyo-based Nexon and Gree Incorporated, whose shares have more than doubled this year, aim to benefit from the growing popularity of games that let people in different places play together on the Internet. "Investors around the world are happy to inject their money in areas where they can see growth," Kazumi Tanaka, an IPO analyst at T&C Financial Research Incorporated in Tokyo, Kazumi Tunaka, said. He added that, "Nexon may use the money to acquire competitors and to find talented people to develop the business." Nexon has been preparing a Japan listing and is open to buying more companies after making acquisitions in South Korea, Chief Executive Officer, Choi Seung Woo, said last December. A total of 31 Japanese companies have announced IPOs this year, the most since 2008, Bloomberg data show, in a sign that the equity capital market is beginning to recover from the March earthquake. "Nexon has been aggressive in M&A, so they may invest more in that area," Jeong Dae Ho, a Seoul-based analyst at LIG Investment & Securities Company said, "They may use the proceeds from the IPO to invest overseas to strengthen global channels and to be able to directly source content in other countries." Nexon, which develops games including "KartRider" and "MapleStory," has operations in South Korea, where it was founded, as well as the US and Europe. "As we pursue our strategic objectives, we regularly review our options for accelerating our growth," Nexons Seoul office said in an e-mailed response to questions on the IPO. "We have made no decisions or announcements about any specific financing or other plans and cannot comment on rumors." Keiko Sugai, a Tokyo-based spokeswoman for Nomura, declined to comment, as did Hiroko Matsumoto, a spokeswoman for Goldman Sachs in Tokyo, and Natsuo Nishio for Morgan Stanley.
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