Korea's Thrunet climbs amid demand for foreign ISPs
Wednesday November 17, 12:11 pm Eastern Time
NEW YORK, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Korean Internet service provider (ISP) Thrunet Co. Ltd. (NasdaqNM:KOREA - news) ADRs, or American Depositary Receipts, climbed Wednesday in their U.S. debut as investors devoured new issues from foreign Internet firms.
Its ADRs were last up $23, or 130 percent, at $41 on the Nasdaq following its $18 a share offering. Each ADR was equivalent to one share.
Thrunet, which had about 91,000 end users as of September, raised $181.8 million after pricing 10.1 million shares above its expected price range through Lehman Brothers.
One ADR trader said demand was strong because it was one of the largest Internet portals in Korea.
While investors have been hesitant about international deals because of foreign exchange and political risks, industry watchers said investors are now trading off the risk for the opportunity to invest early in the Internet revolution abroad.
``I love all these stocks because there's a shortage, but Korea is probably the most advanced in Asia in terms of telecom infrastructure. Korea's Internet penetration is growing very quickly,' said Eric Ritter, of Driehaus Mutual Funds. ``Internet stocks to do well if there is cheap access and a lot of choices are needed and Korea's Thrunet has that.'
Ritter also said that the Korean government's decision to sell 10 million low-cost PCs to encourage Internet penetration will help Thrunet. Also in its favor is the company's alliance with Microsoft Corp.(NasdaqNM:MSFT - news) to implement and develop broadband technologies.
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