The government is putting its stake in NXC up for sale for the third time. The stake consists of 851,968 shares, representing 30.6% of the total equity, valued at approximately 4.7 trillion won. Consequently, industry attention is focused on which companies might participate in the bidding.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance recently announced the sale of the entire 30.6% stake. These shares were provided by the family of the late founder Kim Jung-ju—specifically Chairperson Yoo Jung-hyun and the two children—as an inheritance tax payment in 2023. The government expects to generate approximately 4.7 trillion won in non-tax revenue from this sale, a figure calculated by applying a 20% management premium to NXC’s net asset value.

However, NXC is a private company, and since Chairperson Yoo Jung-hyun and the children still hold more than half of the shares, acquiring this stake alone does not grant management control. Therefore, to secure management control, an investor would need to raise a massive amount of capital, likely requiring a total of 7 to 8 trillion won to acquire additional shares beyond the initial 4.7 trillion won investment.

In this context, Tencent, which has previously been linked to Nexon acquisition rumors, and Krafton, which holds over 4 trillion won in cash and cash equivalents, are emerging as potential candidates. However, Tencent officially denied the rumors when they surfaced recently. Other companies such as NCSoft, Netmarble, and Kakao have also been mentioned as potential candidates in the past, but market analysts suggest they would currently struggle to secure the short-term liquidity required for an independent acquisition.

The deadline for the NXC stake auction is August 25.