이 기사는 2021년 04월 13일 07시58분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

Global investment giants are set to invest in Naver Webtoon as the digital cartoon arm of South Korean internet giant Naver Corp is planning to go public in New York next year, industry sources said.

KKR, Silver Lake and TPG Capital are among new investors seeking to acquire minority stakes in the company, according to sources. Naver Webtoon is expected to raise $500 million in total in a fresh funding round that would value the company at 5 trillion won ($4.4 billion) or higher on a pre-money basis.

Namsun Kim, who leads Naver’s mergers and acquisitions and capital markets team after moving from Macquarie Group last year, is playing a key role in the fundraising. New York-based PJT Partners is acting as financial advisor to Naver Webtoon.

Naver Webtoon has from the beginning targeted foreign investors only. Global private equity funds are increasingly looking to invest in lucrative intellectual property businesses, with many films and TV shows adapted from digital cartoons and novels gaining popularity in recent years globally.

The funding round comes as the online cartoon unit is aiming to list on Nasdaq by the end of next year. It seems to want to increase its value through a strategic partnership with global investors before an initial public offering, industry watchers said.

The listing would mark another U.S. stock market debut of Naver’s subsidiaries after its messaging app Line was listed in New York and Tokyo in 2015. As part of efforts to better position itself in the U.S. market, Naver Webtoon implemented a corporate restructuring last year to make its U.S. unit the parent company of South Korean and Japanese units.

Naver has become more visible in the content landscape globally. It announced a $600 million takeover of the world’s largest social storytelling platform Wattpad in February, outbidding rivals including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Facebook, ByteDance and Spotify. With the deal, Naver will likely boost its monthly active users to 160 million.

Its main rival, Kakao Corp, is also stepping up efforts to expand its intellectual property business. The company is in discussions to acquire U.S.-based online fiction app Radish and its Japanese arm, Kakao Japan, has launched a funding round to raise 750 billion won. (Reporting by Si-eun Park)