Shares of Stellar Blade maker Shift Up surge almost 50% on trading debut

Shares of South Korean video game developer Shift Up spiked almost 50% as the company debuted on the Kospi on Thursday.

The video game developer, which counts Chinese internet giant Tencent as its second largest shareholder, saw its shares climb as high as 89,500 South Korean won (about $64.89) apiece, a 49.17% gain from its initial public offering price of 60,000 won.

The company sold 7.25 million shares in its IPO, raising 435 billion won or about $315.56 million. At the offering price, the company would be valued at 3.48 trillion won, according to CNBC's calculations.

Demand was strong with institutional investors oversubscribing by almost 226 times the institutional allocation and the general offering over 341 times oversubscribed.

This is South Korea's largest IPO since the debut of maintenance and repair firm HD Hyundai Marine Solution in May.

Shift Up was established in 2013, but only gained prominence in 2024 after it released Stellar Blade, a PlayStation 5 exclusive that topped sales in the PlayStation stores of eight countries. It became the best selling game in the U.S. for April, despite being released on April 26.

In just two months, the game had sold over one million copies. Shift Up also makes the free-to-play game Goddess of Victory: Nikke, released in 2022.

The company reported sales of 168.6 billion won in 2023, up 155.2% year-on-year.