Elice shares close at 60,500 won, below IPO price in Seoul
Key Facts
South Korea's Elice closed at 60,500 won on its Seoul trading debut, according to EL7 coverage dated October 20. The artificial intelligence infrastructure company's shares ended their listing session below the price investors paid in its initial public offering. Elice had set its final offer price at 90,500 won per share, according to its IPO pricing statement. The price was at the top of the range offered to investors during the offering. The shares thus went from an IPO priced at the top of the range to a close below the offer price in their first trading session.
Elice said 2,367 institutions participated in bookbuilding ahead of the listing. Institutional demand was covered 388.8 times, according to the company's statement, before the shares began trading. The company estimated final offering proceeds at about 2,011 units of one hundred million won. It also estimated its expected post-listing market capitalisation at about one trillion won plus 54 units of one hundred million won. That expected valuation was based on the IPO price set by the company before its shares began trading in Seoul.
On financial performance, Elice reported consolidated revenue of 344 units of one hundred million won in the first half of 2026. It said revenue for the period amounted to 87% of the previous full year's revenue, comparing half a year's activity with a full year's total. First-half operating profit stood at 103 units of one hundred million won, according to the company. It added that this exceeded twice the operating profit recorded for all of 2025. It also reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of 232 units of one hundred million won. Its EBITDA margin was 68% in the first half, according to figures Elice presented before the listing.
Elice's operations include AI cloud services, according to the company's description of its main activities. It also provides solutions to help organisations transform their operations using AI, alongside its infrastructure business. The company says its modular data centre technology cuts construction time to less than 3 months. It estimates that the technology reduces initial infrastructure construction costs by up to 40%, according to its pre-listing presentation. Its target markets for expansion include the financial and defence sectors, which the company described as markets with stringent security requirements.
In global AI infrastructure developments, CNBC-e reported that Nscale and Anthropic were in talks over a second facility at the Monarch data centre campus in West Virginia. The proposed facility would have 460 megawatts of computing capacity, according to the channel. The project under negotiation is slated to use Nvidia's Vera Rubin chips. The channel said documents for Nscale's planned offering included infrastructure agreements with Anthropic worth about $44,6 billion, separate from the talks over the second facility. The new negotiations had yet to produce a final agreement, with their scope and final terms still unresolved.
Elice's post-IPO plans include directing the proceeds towards increased infrastructure investment in the capital region, according to the company. Spending will also include building infrastructure in regional hubs as part of its domestic expansion plan. Internationally, the company intends to draw on its operations in the United States, Japan and Singapore. Through those companies, it aims to export modular AI data centres overseas. Chief Executive Kim Jae-won said the company aimed to "respond systematically to global demand for AI infrastructure".