By Choi Yang-hae, NewsTop, May 14, 2024, 16:49
Timefolio Asset Management, Stick Ventures, and Industrial Bank of Korea FI Participate.
Geoview, a specialized company in marine exploration, has secured a new investment of 22 billion KRW. The funds will be used for purchasing ships for precise seabed investigation and operational expenses.
According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 14th, Geoview held a board meeting on the 30th of last month and resolved to raise external capital through a third-party allocation of new shares. The company plans to issue approximately 6,660 new redeemable convertible preferred shares (RCPS) to new financial investors (FIs), with an issuance price set at 3.3 million KRW per share.
Based on these conditions, Geoview’s pre-money valuation is approximately 110 billion KRW. The FIs participating in the investment include Timefolio Asset Management (16 billion KRW), Stick Ventures (4.5 billion KRW), and the Industrial Bank of Korea (1.5 billion KRW), collectively investing 22 billion KRW. The payment of the investment funds is expected to be completed sequentially soon.
Along with the new shares, Timefolio Asset Management will also acquire 4 billion KRW worth of existing shares held by current shareholders. These shares, combined with the new shares, will be included in the project fund established for Geoview investment. Stick Ventures will also purchase 1 billion KRW worth of existing shares, utilizing the Stick Innovation Fund formed two years ago as the investment vehicle.
This marks the first new investment Geoview has raised in a year. Last April, the company issued 3,322 RCPS shares to Timefolio Asset Management, raising 3 billion KRW. The issuance price per share was 900,000 KRW, with a pre-money valuation of around 27 billion KRW. In this round, Geoview’s valuation has surged about fourfold in just one year.
Geoview is a marine exploration specialist established in 2005. It is engaged in businesses such as ▲support for marine survey vessels, ▲subsea cable surveys, ▲high-resolution strata exploration, ▲subsea burial object surveys, and ▲seabed sediment surveys. The company performs exploration projects required for constructing offshore wind farms or connecting subsea cables.
Investors have focused on Geoview’s marine exploration technology. Notably, Geoview exported its marine exploration technology to the Philippines in 2019 and successfully completed the “Firefly Floating Wind Farm Seabed Exploration Project” commissioned by the Norwegian state-owned company Equinor in 2022. Geoview is the first domestic marine exploration company to export its self-developed technology and successfully complete an overseas project.
Profitability has also shown remarkable improvement. According to the Financial Supervisory Service’s electronic disclosure system, Geoview reported sales of 15 billion KRW and an operating profit of 6.2 billion KRW last year. This represents a 161% increase in sales and a 257% increase in operating profit compared to the previous year. Net profit also grew 2.7 times, from 1.6 billion KRW to 4.3 billion KRW during the same period. With the new investment, securing seabed exploration vessels is expected to lead to even greater growth.
Source: NewsTop (https://www.newstof.com)
