KOSDAQ's Revolving Door: Two IPO Approvals and Two New Filings in Four Days

Four companies moved through KOSDAQ’s listing pipeline in the space of four days: the Korea Exchange’s KOSDAQ Market Division approved the preliminary listing reviews of Dabeeo and Hana Aerodynamics on August 28, then accepted new preliminary review applications from Mothers Pharmaceutical and E9Pay on August 31. The pairing captures a market in steady rotation — candidates advancing toward flotation at one end while the exchange polices its existing roster at the other.

Two Cleared, Two in the Queue

Preliminary listing review is the gate every KOSDAQ hopeful must pass before it can file a securities registration statement and set IPO terms. Dabeeo and Hana Aerodynamics have now cleared that gate, putting both on track to price and list in the coming months, subject to the usual follow-on filings. Mothers Pharmaceutical and E9Pay, by contrast, are at the start of the process: the exchange has accepted their paperwork, and a review that typically weighs profitability, governance and disclosure readiness now begins.

Mothers Pharm’s Second Run at the Public Markets

Of the two new applicants, Mothers Pharmaceutical arrives with the longer paper trail. The drugmaker traces its founding to December 22, 1962, though its modern incarnation dates to the 2011 acquisition of Anam Pharm, and it brought a new GMP-standard plant in Iksan online in 2022. The company manufactures roughly 150 prescription drugs across central nervous system, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and antibiotic categories — flagship products include the diabetes treatment Teneglip and the anti-obesity tablet Zerofat — and employed 311 people as of September 2024.

The financials behind the application are solid if not spectacular: revenue of roughly 192.7 billion won in 2024, following operating profit of 9.6 billion won and net income of 8 billion won in 2023. The record is not unblemished. On May 27, 2025, the company lost its K-OTC registration after failing to file its business report on time — precisely the kind of disclosure lapse a listing review scrutinizes. Since then it has moved to tidy its shareholder story, resuming cash dividends in 2026 for the first time in seven years before filing its KOSDAQ application in August.

E9Pay, the second applicant, now enters the same review process; the exchange’s announcement named the company without further detail.

A Market That Adds and Subtracts at Once

The listing news landed alongside a run of housekeeping actions from the same KOSDAQ Market Division. Trading in Shinyoung SPAC No. 10 was suspended after a delisting trigger arose, and Golfzon Holdings — a KOSDAQ name since May 2011 that booked about 386.2 billion won in 2024 revenue — received an amended advance notice of designation as an unfaithful-disclosure company. Several other issuers saw trading halts imposed or lifted around share consolidations.

That two-way churn is the normal metabolism of a large market. The Korea Exchange carried 2,901 listed issues as of January 2026, with total market capitalization of roughly 4,277 trillion won, or about 2.95 trillion US dollars. For Dabeeo and Hana Aerodynamics, approval means the fundraising clock starts now; for Mothers Pharmaceutical and E9Pay, the next several months will determine whether a review that rewards clean disclosure lets them through the same gate.