Online comics company Webtoon Entertainment Inc., owned by South Korea's top internet platform, Naver, has set a price of US$21 per share, the top of its pricing range, for its plan to list itself on the U.S. stock market, as it seeks to become a "Disney in Asia." In a statement released Wednesday (U.S. time), Los Angeles, California-based Webtoon "announced the pricing of its initial public offering of an aggregate of 15,000,000 shares of common stock at a price to the public of $21 per share." Based on the price, Webtoon will raise $315 million via the initial public offering (IPO). Webtoon is set to list its shares on Nasdaq on Thursday (U.S. time) under the ticker symbol WBTN, and the company's targeted valuation is worth up to $2.7 billion. Webtoon "has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 2,250,000 shares of its common stock at the public offering price, less underwriting discounts and commissions," the company said in a statement. The IPO is part of Naver's stra tegy to become a more global webtoon platform. Webtoons, a type of digital comics originating from South Korea about 10 years ago and usually meant to be read on smartphones, have seen their popularity reach outside their home base and hook international readers in Asia, North America and Europe. Kim Jun-koo, founder and CEO of Webtoon Entertainment, said in a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that "the initial vision was very simple -- to bring comics to more people around the world." "I imagined a world where American, Korean, Japanese or French comic creators weren't limited by print or borders and could instead reach new readers all over the world online," he said. Kim, who started off as a search engineer at Naver, launched the Webtoon platform as a side project in 2005 based on his love for comics since he was young. With fast growth, Naver Webtoon became a company at Naver in 2015 and spun off as a separate firm in 2017. Kim also contributed to the creation and growth of the overall webtoon industry by establishing an ecosystem where creators and the company form a symbiotic relationship, industry officials said. "Our future success depends on the continuing efforts of our founder," Webtoon Entertainment said in a report to the SEC, highlighting the vitalness of Kim's role in the company. Inspired by a wide fan base and creative subjects, a number of webtoons have been adapted into Korean drama series on streaming platforms and local TV channels with success in recent years. For instance, Kang Full's hit webtoons have offered abundant sources for several films and dramas, but writing the script for Disney+ drama series "Moving" based on his superhero webtoon marked a turning point for the pioneer of the Korean webtoon industry. "Moving," Kang's eponymous webtoon that has garnered over 200 million views since its release in 2015, tells the story of a group of superpowered individuals who hide their true abilities from the world in order to protect their families from dange r. In 2021, Naver acquired Canadian entertainment platform operator Wattpad Corp., eventually forming Webtoon in the U.S. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are acting as lead bookrunning managers for the proposed offering of Webtoon. Source: Yonhap News Agency