According to industry reports on Wednesday, Kakao Mobility's American depositary receipt (ADR) offering counts as a duplicate listing, which requires shareholder-protection procedures by parent Kakao and cannot be finalized until the corporate split settles the ownership structure.
TPG recently met with officials at the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service to walk them through the state of the ADR plan.
The firm told regulators it needs cooperation from Kakao, the majority owner with a 57.18 percent stake, but that talks have stalled, making the listing hard to advance.
TPG's consortium first put about 500 billion won ($364 million) into Kakao Mobility in 2017 and added 130.7 billion won in 2021, yet has been unable to recoup either sum more than nine years on.
Under a duplicate-listing guideline introduced in July, Kakao must assess how a Kakao Mobility offering would affect existing shareholders and draw up safeguards before the deal can proceed.
Kakao must also top off an F-1 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and a separate securities filing at home.
The company plans to divide into Kakao AI and Kakao X on Jan. 1 after an extraordinary shareholder meeting on Dec. 17, with the two entities relisting on Jan. 27, a sequence that all but rules out an ADR debut this year.
The two sides broadly agree TPG should be able to exit, but they remain at odds over timing and shareholder terms. Ryu Geung-seon, Kakao Mobility's chief executive, has resisted pinning down a listing schedule even after backing the SEC registration itself, and the industry expects the tug-of-war to run on.
AJP Takeaways
• Kakao split into Kakao AI and Kakao X, to complete on Jan. 1, 2027, is expected to delay Kakao Mobility's planned US ADR listing, frustrating private equity backer TPG.
• Kakao holds a 57.18 percent stake in Kakao Mobility, and a July 2026 duplicate-listing guideline requires the parent to complete shareholder-protection procedures before any overseas offering can proceed.
• TPG invested about 500 billion won in Kakao Mobility in 2017 and a further 130.7 billion won in 2021 but has yet to recoup either after more than nine years, deepening its pressure to exit.
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