Kumho Tire burns rubber in London and Seoul

Size: $364 million
Bookrunner: JPMorgan
Date: February 16 2005

Kumho Tire's $364 million simultaneous dual listing in London and Seoul is the first transaction of its kind for a Korean company. It is also the largest IPO by a Korean company anywhere since July 2004.

The deal is a big success for the London Stock Exchange, which has been aggressively trying to attract international companies to list on its market instead of on the New York Stock Exchange. The deal comes just one month after Air China opted for London with a $1.1 billion IPO.

Asian companies have historically preferred a New York listing but the LSE's efforts to win them over have benefited from the backlash against the US's Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which requires company executives to personally sign off on the accuracy of their accounts, although the management of Kumho Tire and its parent Kumho Asiana...