[GLOBAL ECONOMIC TIMES]  The Bourne Korea, a restaurant franchise company led by CEO Baek Jong-won, which is seeking listing on the stock market, was a box office success, with the competition rate for general subscription of public stock exceeding 770 to 1. However, in the subscription for employee stock shares for internal employees, shares were forfeited due to insufficient supply.

According to Korea Investment & Securities, the listing manager on the 30th, The Born Korea's subscription competition rate was 772.80 to 1. As a result, 11.8038 trillion won was collected as margin. The number of subscriptions was 673,421, and the number of subscriptions was 695,519,240 shares.

Initially, The Born Korea allotted 750,000 shares for general subscription, but the number of public offering shares that had been subscribed until the previous day increased to 900,000 shares. This appears to be because a large number of forfeited shares were generated in the subscription for the employee stock ownership association that was conducted in advance. According to the securities underwriting regulations, if the target volume is not met in subscription to the employee stock ownership association, the volume excluding the subscription quantity of employee stock ownership association members can be allocated to general subscribers within 5% of the total public offering stock (3 million shares).

Some interpret that The Born Korea employees are pessimistic about the company's future growth potential and have given up their employee stock ownership in large numbers. If the subscription volume of 600,000 shares allocated to the employee stock ownership association is multiplied by the public offering price of 34,000 won and divided by the number of full-time employees of 713 according to the securities report, approximately 28 million won per person is needed.

Meanwhile, The Born Korea, founded by CEO Baek in 1994, operates 25 restaurant brands, including Baek Cafe, Hong Kong Restaurant, and Saemaeul Restaurant. The number of domestic stores amounts to approximately 2,900. In addition, the company is also engaged in a distribution business that sells processed foods and sauces to consumers, and a hotel business through The Born Hotel in Jeju Island. The Born Korea pursued listing in 2018, but postponed it due to the spread of COVID-19, and attempted listing again this year to celebrate its 30th anniversary. The expected listing date on the stock market is the 6th of next month.

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