(Reuters) – Online comic book platform Webtoon Entertainment said on Wednesday it would price its initial public offering (IPO) at the top of its expected range, seeking to raise about $315 million.
The company, majority-owned by South Korean technology giant Naver, had priced the 15 million shares at $21 apiece, with a bid range of $18 to $21.
With the IPO, the Los Angeles, California-based company is now valued at $2.67 billion.
Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Securities and Evercore Group are acting as lead managers for the IPO.
Webtoon was founded in 2005 as a side project by CEO Kim Jun-koo while he was working as a search engineer at Naver.
With roots in Korea, the company is a storytelling platform with thousands of titles across a variety of genres, including fantasy, action, romance and horror.
Webtoon has approximately 170 million monthly active users in over 150 countries around the world.
The company’s services include the Japanese webcomic and manga app “Line Manga,” the web novel platform “Wattpad,” and the Korean webcomic service “Naver Webtoon.”
Certain funds and accounts managed by BlackRock (NYSE:), the world’s largest asset manager, have indicated they intend to purchase up to $50 million worth of shares being sold in the offering.
Separately, Naver’s U.S. subsidiary, Naver U.Hub, agreed to buy $50 million worth of Webtoon shares in a parallel private placement.
Webtoon’s shares are scheduled to trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on June 27 under the ticker symbol “WBTN.”
(This article has been refiled with the dollar sign removed from the third paragraph)