NHN wins tentative approval for bourse switch

SEOUL, Nov. 20 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's stock market operator granted preliminary approval Thursday for Web portal and game provider NHN Corp. to move to the main bourse from the secondary board.

The Korea Exchange (KRX) said its listing review board reached a tentative
conclusion that NHN meets requirements for listing on the main bourse. A final
review will be held later this month.
NHN, South Korea's largest portal operator, currently accounts for some 10
percent of the tech-heavy KOSDAQ's 4 trillion won market cap. Market watchers
expect the move to be finalized by early December.
Three companies -- Asiana Airlines Inc., LG Telecom Ltd. and Bookook Steel Co. --
have moved to the KOSPI from the junior board so far this year.
NHN accounted for some 70 percent of Korea's Web search market at the end of
September, followed by Daum Communications Corp., according to latest market
reports.
The portal operator was an icon of a successful venture business with total sales
increasing over 10 times since it was listed in 2002. NHN runs naver.com.
Despite the approval, NHN's share plunged 8.99 percent to close at 94,100 won
(US$63), falling along with the KOSDAQ's 8.19 percent loss for the session.
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