Korean data-center company Elice falls 30%+ in Kosdaq trading debut; sources: Australian data center operator AirTrunk delays real estate investment trust IPO (Bloomberg)

Data centre infrastructure company Elice experienced a significant drop in share price during its initial public offering (IPO) on South Korea’s Kosdaq market. The firm raised 201 billion won ($192.92 million) in the biggest IPO of the year. Shares fell by up to 32%, trading at 61,400 won in early trading on October 20, with the company pricing shares at 90,500 won each – the top of the offered range.

This marks the inception of a sector test after multiple setbacks globally. Firms like Firmus Grid, Coreweave, AirTrunk, and Nscale have postponed or cancelled their IPOs due to concerns over borrowing costs, fierce competition, and long-term returns from significant AI investments.

Albert Yong, managing partner and chief investment officer at Petra Capital Management, noted that Elice’s debut occurred when AI infrastructure sentiment had weakened, especially in the United States. The firm managed to attract South Korean retail investors, who contributed roughly 10.3 trillion won in subscription deposits to secure shares, an oversubscription of more than 400 times.

Elice highlighted an impressive 200% increase in first-half revenue to 34.4 billion won, resulting in an operating profit of 10.3 billion won and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation rising more than 11-fold to 23.2 billion won.

Analysts remain optimistic about Elice’s prospects, anticipating an 83% sales surge in 2026 and an operating margin of around 33%. Despite the recent volatility, company executives believe the recent surge in operating profit from AI cloud operations and the IPO funds will enable the firm to respond to private-sector demands. Founded in 2015 by three doctoral students from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Elice initially operated as a coding education platform before transitioning to AI cloud infrastructure, offering products such as servers, liquid-cooled chips, cloud and networking equipment, and software.

With the successful IPO, Elice aims to build more AI data centres domestically and abroad, leveraging the proceeds to solidify its position as a global full-stack AI infrastructure leader.