Korea’s cloud management firm Bespin Global considers Nasdaq listing

Bespin Global, a South Korean cloud technology consulting and management company, is considering listing its shares on the US tech-heavy Nasdaq market as the company aims to raise capital for business expansion.

The company plans to start preparations for the Nasdaq listing sometime in the first half of 2021, according to investment banking industry sources on Dec. 17. The timing for the listing hasn’t been decided yet, they said.

“Bespin wanted to go public in the US as it is a global service provider and has already attracted investments from multinational investors,” said one of the sources.

Established in 2015, Bespin is a managed services provider (MSP) that supports major public cloud platforms and offers cloud managed services globally through its proprietary platform, OpsNow.

The company has some 900 clients in Korea and abroad. Local clients include SK Telecom, Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motor, Amorepacific and Netmarble.

Bespin’s sales more than doubled to 84.9 billion won ($77.6 million) in 2019, but it posted an operating loss of 41.9 billion won as it hired more workers for business expansion.

“Bespin is pushing for a Nasdaq listing as it is expected to turn to profit in the first half of next year,” said an industry official. Bespin’s corporate value could be as high as 1 trillion won, he said.

Newberry Global Ltd., a Hong Kong-based financial firm, holds 99.95% of Bepin Global as its holding company. Under its wing, Newberry Global also has cloud management units operating in China, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Through Newberry, Bespin Global has so far attracted 200 billion won in funding from global investors, including a combined 110 billion won from Temasek unit ST Telemedia, China’s Legend Capital and Korea’s DY Holdings in 2018.

John Hanjoo Lee, chief executive of Bespin Global, cofounded Hostway, a managed hosting provider based in Chicago, in 1998 and sold it to a private equity fund in 2013.

Write to Geun-Ho Im at eigen@hankyung.com
In-Soo Nam edited this article.