[THE INVESTOR] LINE Corp., the mobile messenger service operator owned by Naver (chairman Lee Hae-jin), jumped 26.61 percent on the first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange on July 14.

LINE’s million American Depository Shares (ADSs) began at $32.84 topping the expected price range, and closed at US$ 41.58, rising 26.6 percent over the course of the day. 

LINE offered 22 million shares in the US, and will put up 13 million shares for trading in Tokyo on July 15.

LINE’s value currently stands at about 9.9 trillion won (US$ 8.7 billion).

Lee Hae-jin, board chairman of Naver, which holds about 80 percent of LINE after the offerings, is expected to hold a press conference on July 15 at the company’s data center in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province.

LINE is the world’s seventh largest mobile messenger service with more than 218 million users. The majority of the users are located in Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan and Thailand.

The Japan-based Naver subsidiary posted 2015 sales of about 1.29 trillion won, up 39 percent from the previous year.

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)