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The company raised a total of US$3.5 billion (approximately 3.4 trillion Won or £1.9 billion) in its Initial Public Offering in London and Seoul - the largest ever IPO by a Korean company. Lotte Shopping’s offering comprises 8.57 million common shares. This includes 6.86 million common shares which were offered as Global Depositary Shares outside Korea (one common share representing 20 GDSs).
To celebrate the occasion, Mr In-Won Lee, President and Chief Executive Officer of Lotte Department Store, today opened the London Stock Exchange’s markets by switching on ‘The Source’, a specially commissioned artwork in the main atrium of the London Stock Exchange’s building in Paternoster Square. He was accompanied by Chris Gibson-Smith, Chairman of the London Stock Exchange.
Chris Gibson-Smith said:
“We are delighted that Lotte Shopping has chosen London for its listing outside Korea. Lotte Shopping’s listing demonstrates that world-class companies from Korea can use a London listing to access deep pools of international capital and take their place amongst a truly global peer group.”
Since opening its first department store in Seoul in 1979, Lotte Shopping has become the largest department store and the third largest discount store chain operator in Korea. Lotte Shopping controls 43 per cent of Korea’s 16.5 trillion won (US$17 billion) department store market and 12 per cent of Korea’s 21.5 trillion won (US$22 billion) discount retail sector, which has trebled in size since 1999.
Lotte Shopping’s IPO brings the total number of Korean companies listed on the London Stock Exchange to nine. A further seven Korean Depository Receipts are also traded on the International Order Book (IOB).
Korea is the second most active country for IOB trading. In 2005, the Exchange’s member firms traded approximately US$12.2 billion of Korean securities on the IOB, an increase of 81 per cent on 2001.
In 2005, the London Stock Exchange attracted a record 139 international companies, from 29 countries, to its Main Market and AIM.
Goldman Sachs and Nomura Securities acted as Joint Global Co-Coordinators and Bookrunners for the international offering of Global Depositary Shares, and Daewoo Securities acted as the lead underwriter for the Korean offering of common shares.
