Elice’s disappointing IPO sparks debate on AI valuations

Elice Group did everything a hot IPO candidate is supposed to do. It drew massive oversubscription, priced its shares at 90,500 won, and raised 201.1 billion won, or approximately $151 million. Then trading opened on the Kosdaq on October 20, 2026. The shares fell about 32% by the close, and the AI trade suddenly looked a lot less like a sure thing. A blowout order book, then a cold open The demand numbers before listing were striking. Retail subscriptions came in roughly 400 to 408 times oversubscribed, and institutional bookbuilding was oversubscribed 389 times. The stock dropped as much as 38% during the session before recovering slightly. It finished the day in the neighborhood of 60,500 to 61,500 won, down roughly 32% from the offer price. After the slide, the company’s market valuation sat at approximately 674 billion won. That makes it one of the worst opening-day showings for a large Korean IPO in recent years. The fundamentals were not the problem For the first half of 2026, the company reported that revenue tripled to 34.4 billion won. It also posted an operating profit of 10.3 billion won over the same period. Elice debuted amid continued selling pressure on peers like C...