SEOUL: The man behind South Korea’s biggest initial public offering in seven years has charted an unlikely path in a country dominated by family-run conglomerates.
A high school dropout born in a textile factory slum, Bang Jun-hyuk has used a hard-charging attitude to grow Netmarble Games Corp into a gaming giant, winning fans and critics along the way. Its shares debut tomorrow after an IPO that raised 2.66 trillion won (US$2.3bil) and values the company at about 13 trillion won, which is more than the market capitalisation of LG Electronics Inc.