Vuno plunges 25% after ₩31.4 billion rights offering announcement

  • Vuno announced a 6.3 million-share rights offering after the Aug. 28 market close.
  • 6.3 million new shares equal 44.99% of Vuno’s pre-offering outstanding shares.
  • Lee Ye-ha plans to subscribe for about 7% of his allocated shares.

Vuno shares fell sharply after the South Korean medical artificial intelligence company announced a ₩31.374 billion rights offering for 6.3 million common shares, equal to 44.99% of its 14,001,823 shares outstanding before the offering. The stock dropped 23.78% to ₩5,640 by 9:36 a.m. on Aug. 31 after reaching an intraday low of ₩5,520, a decline of 25.41%, following the disclosure after the Aug. 28 market close. Vuno set a preliminary issue price of ₩4,980, 32.7% below the previous closing price of ₩7,400. CEO Lee Ye-ha, the largest shareholder, plans to subscribe for about 7% of the 969,199 shares allocated to him, potentially reducing the combined stake of Lee and related parties from 15.59% to 11.09%; it could fall to 10.09% if perpetual convertible bonds are later converted. Vuno said the immediate risk of a management-control change is low because no shareholder other than Lee holds more than 5% and ownership is dispersed among small shareholders. The company plans to use ₩20 billion of the proceeds to repay principal and interest on its third-series perpetual convertible bonds, with the remainder funding research and development, sales and marketing, and overseas subsidiary operations. Investor skepticism has also focused on ₩17.535 billion of ₩69.129 billion raised through earlier private placements that remains unused and is being managed as financial products, including the full ₩10 billion raised through a fifth perpetual convertible bond in February for operating funds. Vuno’s first-half sales fell 27.6% to ₩12.16 billion, its operating loss widened to ₩8.3 billion and net loss reached ₩9.4 billion, while operating cash flow turned negative at ₩7.1 billion. Existing shareholder subscriptions are scheduled for Nov. 9-10, payment for Nov. 17 and listing of the new shares for Nov. 30.

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