One store cancels IPO just days after CEO said otherwise

Lee Jae-hwan, CEO of One store, speaks about the company's IPO plan at a press conference on Monday. [ONE STORE]

One store, a well-backed upstart seeking to break the Apple App Store-Google Play duopoly, cancelled its initial public offering (IPO) on Wednesday as investor demand was too weak and pricing too low.

Its withdrawal comes as other IPOs are pulled due to market volatility and poor sentiment and just days after the company's CEO vowed to go ahead with the deal despite the challenging conditions.

The app store is the second largest in the country, with a 14.5 percent market share, according to data from MobileIndex last September. Google Play had 71.9 percent and The App Store 13.5 percent.

In the listing, the company was to sell 6.7 million shares, of which 4.7 million would be new shares. The range was set between 34,300 won ($26.56) and 41,700 won. Its market cap would have been 1.1 trillion won if the shares had sold at the high end of the range.

The company was willing to settle for 27,000 won, but demand was so weak, it withdrew the offering.

"One store is withdrawing based on the agreement with advisors considering many factors, such as the difficulty for the company to be valued properly," read a statement from One store.

CEO Lee Jae-hwan on Monday insisted "there is no withdrawal plan for the company."

One store is owned by a number of tech and telecom heavyweights. SK Square has 47.5 percent of the stock, Naver 25 percent, KT 2.9 percent, LG U+ 0.7 percent, Microsoft 1.3 percent and Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners 0.6 percent.

SK shieldus, 63.13 percent owned by SK Square, scrapped plans for its own IPO last week.

"Both SK shieldus and One store decided to withdraw their IPO plans as they have realized that institutions are not willing to make investments due to the instability of the global stock market," said a spokesperson for SK Square.

"We will need to come up with a new strategy for the IPO, but there are still many growth strategies for SK Square, including new investments and dividend income of SK hynix."

SK Square was split from SK Telecom late last year and has lost half its value since then. Its shares were down 3.50 percent Wednesday.

BY KIM JUNG-MIN, KIM YEON-JOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]