The number of IPO shares you receive under Korea's equal allocation rule is simply half the retail tranche divided by the number of subscription applications. When that quotient falls below one, not everyone gets a share — the single share becomes a lottery. Working backward from the published figures for Inspian, which listed on KOSDAQ in October 2024, the per-person equal allocation came to 0.84 shares.
Equal allocation is regulation, not a brokerage promotion. In November 2020 the Financial Services Commission reworked Korea's IPO rules so that at least half of the retail tranche is distributed equally among everyone who posts the minimum subscription deposit. Before that, shares went to whoever wired the most money. Since the change, what decides your outcome is not the size of your deposit but how many people crowded into the same deal.
How the equal allocation quotient is calculated
Three numbers do the work: the retail tranche, the equal-allocation ratio, and the application count. The tranche often is not stated directly, but you can reverse-engineer it from the published competition rate and deposit total.
For Inspian, Boannews reported a retail competition rate of 1,538.44 to 1, 336,294 applications, roughly 5.192 trillion won in subscription deposits, and a final offering price of 12,000 won. Because the deposit rate is customarily 50%, doubling the deposit total gives the gross subscription value.
- Gross subscription value = 5.192tn won × 2 = 10.384tn won
- Total shares subscribed = 10.384tn won ÷ 12,000 won = about 865.33 million shares
- Retail tranche = 865.33m ÷ 1,538.44 = about 562,000 shares
- Equal allocation pool = 562,000 × 50% = about 281,000 shares
- Per-person quotient = 281,000 ÷ 336,294 = 0.84 shares
You cannot be allotted 0.84 of a share. When the quotient falls under one, the system does not hand everyone a share — it runs a draw and gives out exactly as many single shares as the pool holds. Anyone who applied at the minimum lot was looking at an 84% chance of one share, not a guaranteed one.
Equal allocation does not promise everyone a share. It promises everyone the same odds. The moment half the tranche is smaller than the number of applicants, that one share becomes a lottery outcome.
At what application count does the single share break?
Hold the pool constant and vary only the application count, and the threshold appears. The table below computes the per-person quotient against an equal pool of 281,000 shares. Read anything after the decimal point as draw probability.
| Applications | Equal quotient (shares) | What you actually get |
|---|---|---|
| 50,000 | 5.62 | 5 guaranteed + 0.62 draw |
| 100,000 | 2.81 | 2 guaranteed + 0.81 draw |
| 200,000 | 1.41 | 1 guaranteed + 0.41 draw |
| 281,000 | 1.00 | Everyone gets 1 (the threshold) |
| 336,294 (actual) | 0.84 | 84% chance of 1 share |
| 500,000 | 0.56 | 56% chance of 1 share |
| 800,000 | 0.35 | 35% chance of 1 share |
The line sits at 281,000 applications. Below it, everyone walks away with at least one share; above it, the whole thing turns probabilistic. Smaller deals push that line down — halve the tranche and the threshold drops to the 140,000 range. A headline about a competition rate above 1,000 to 1 tells you less than the ratio of application count to deal size, which sets the quotient directly.
What a proportional share actually costs
The other half is allotted in proportion to shares applied for. Divide total shares subscribed by the proportional pool and you get the proportional competition rate: 865.33m ÷ 281,000 = about 3,077 to 1. That is exactly twice the headline 1,538.44 figure, which is the 50/50 split showing through.
| Shares applied for | Deposit required (won) | Expected proportional allotment (shares) |
|---|---|---|
| 10 (minimum lot) | 60,000 | 0.003 |
| 100 | 600,000 | 0.03 |
| 500 | 3,000,000 | 0.16 |
| 1,000 | 6,000,000 | 0.33 |
| 3,077 | 18,460,000 | 1.00 |
| 10,000 | 60,000,000 | 3.25 |
| 30,000 | 180,000,000 | 9.75 |
One extra share by the proportional route means tying up 18.46 million won for a couple of days. One share by the equal route needs the 10-share minimum lot and 60,000 won, at the same 84% odds. That is why deposit size contributes so little once competition runs into three digits. Per KB Kookmin Bank, unused deposits are refunded two business days after the subscription closes, netted against allotted shares × offering price and the subscription fee.
What changed once duplicate subscriptions were blocked
The FSC package also barred subscribing through multiple lead underwriters for the same deal, closing the route of opening accounts everywhere to collect the equal quotient several times over. In exchange, the retail pool itself grew: up to 5% of any undersubscribed employee stock ownership tranche now flows to retail investors, as does the 5% carved out of high-yield fund priority allocations.
Supply has recently moved the other way. Etoday reports 17 new listings in the first half of 2026 (1 on KOSPI, 16 on KOSDAQ) raising 1.13 trillion won — down 55.3% in count and 48.7% in value year on year. Yet 14 of them, 82% of the total, drew retail competition rates above 1,000 to 1. When supply halves and application counts hold, the equal quotient shrinks arithmetically: you move toward the bottom rows of the table above.
The conditions that would reverse this are just as clear. If large deals return in the second half and tranches grow, the threshold climbs back. If the enthusiasm behind an average first-day opening gain of 178.7% cools and application counts fall first, the same thing happens. The quotient is a ratio of shares to people, not a read on sentiment. The cost side of selling after listing is covered separately in the piece on the 0.20% securities transaction tax on KOSPI and KOSDAQ.
What to watch
Restricting the list to what filings and news actually disclose:
- Retail tranche in shares — stated in the securities registration statement. It is the numerator of the quotient, and it matters more than the competition rate
- Equal allocation ratio — 50% is the floor, but some deals go higher. At 60% the threshold rises accordingly
- Per-brokerage tranche — the quotient is computed at the brokerage level. The house with the biggest allocation is not always the one attracting the most applications
- Minimum lot and subscription fee — if you are only playing the equal route, check that the fee does not eat the expected gain. A 2,000 won fee on a 10-share application cancels much of it
- Institutional lock-up commitments — these averaged 46.32% in the first half of 2026, up sharply from 7.06% a year earlier. It is the best read on free float right after listing
Sources
- Expanding retail investors' IPO allocation opportunities — Financial Services Commission
- Inspian records 1,538.44 to 1 retail subscription competition rate — Boannews
- IPO supply halved in the first half, but subscription demand held — Etoday
- What is an IPO subscription? Equal and proportional allocation explained — KB Kookmin Bank
