Next Entertainment World (N.E.W.), the South Korean film investor-distributor, closed its first day of trading Tuesday up 14.87 percent on the Korea Exchange's KOSDAQ board. The stock began the day at $14.37 (15,800 won), 3.07 percent lower than its initial public offering price of $14.82 (16,300 won), and finished the day at $16.50 (18,150 won) a share.
Last week, the company raised a successful public subscription deposit of about $102.85 million (113.288 billion won). A $52.7 million investment by China's Huace Film & TV in October — a 15 percent stake that makes the Chinese company the second largest stakeholder — is said to have boosted prospects of N.E.W.'s listing.
N.E.W. is a leading indie firm that quickly rose to become a major player in the Korean film market, taking an 18 percent share of the market last year. It has been behind some of the most successful local titles in recent Korean cinema history, such as New World, Miss Granny, The Attorney, Miracle in Cell No. 7 and Hide and Seek. The Attorney and Miracle in Cell No. 7 are among the Korea's top grossing films of all time.
N.E.W. is expected to release eight or nine films next year and also plans to make inroads into China via a joint venture company to be launched with Huace. This year's thriller Sea Fog (a.k.a. Haemoo) has been chosen as Korea's 2015 Oscar submission.