(Reuters) – Online comics platform Webtoon Entertainment swung to a profit in the first quarter while growing its revenue by 5%, it disclosed on Friday in its filing for an initial public offering (IPO) in the United States.
The company, owned by South Korean communications technology giant Naver Corp, operates a library of web-novel and comics available to users in over 150 countries. Users can also publish their own work on it.
It was founded in 2005, as a side-project of CEO Junkoo Kim, then a search engineer at Naver. The company currently has 170 million monthly active users, who visit its platform at least once a month on average.
Los Angeles-based Webtoon will enter the market on the heels of some high-profile listings, including social media platform Reddit and China-based EV maker Zeekr, which have boosted investors’ interest in the IPO market.
Webtoon’s net income was $6.2 million, or $1.73 per share, for the three months ended March 31, compared to a loss of $18.3 million, or $4.80 per share, last year. Revenue for the period was $326.7 million, versus $310.3 million a year earlier.
Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan and Evercore ISI are the lead underwriters for the IPO. Webtoon is seeking to list its shares on Nasdaq under the symbol “WBTN.”
(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)
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