Netmarble Games to apply for IPO exchange approval on Friday

SEOUL (Reuters) - Netmarble Games Corp, South Korea's largest online games company, on Tuesday said it plans to apply for Seoul stock exchange approval for its planned initial public offering on September 30. The potential listing date is expected to be early next year, a Netmarble spokesman said. He declined to comment on the expected market capitalization of the company. IFR, a Thomson Reuters publication, in March reported that Netmarble had mandated four banks including Citigroup and JP Morgan to handle a planned IPO of 2 trillion won ($1.7 billion), IFR reported in March. (Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Stephen Coates)