Representing what would be the biggest IPO seen in Japan in 2011, business daily the Nikkei reports Korean online and mobile gaming outfit Nexon is planning to list itself on the Tokyo Stock Exchange for a valuation of around $1.3 billion.

The offering has been pencilled in for December, with Nexon looking to reach a market cap of between ¥600 billion and ¥700 billion – around $7.7 billion to $9 billion.

The mighty Maple

That compares favourably to previous market caps for Japanese social gaming forces GREE and DeNA, which came in at $8.3 billion and $5.4 billion respectively.

It's believed Nexon – which recently moved to its new HQ in Tokyo – will hand management for the IPO over to Nomura Securities, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, with the application expected to be approved this week.

 

Nexon employs a total of 3,000 staff across Japan, Korea, the US and Europe, and has enjoyed particular success in recent months with mobile versions of the firm's RPG franchise MapleStory.

As well as picking up the best game gong at annual Smart Content Awards 2011 in the Korean capital Seoul for Cygnus Knights Edition, October also saw the firm sign a deal with DeNA to bring the series to social gaming platform Mobage in Japan.

[source: TechCrunch]