

Food Discovery Inc., a provider of training courses for people aspiring to become food experts, is due to apply this year to list its shares on Kosdaq, a South Korean bourse for startups. In addition to acquiring much-needed funding, the company is going public to boost its name recognition.
Animation producer DLE Inc. plans to go public in Taiwan next June. It aims to find local business partners in hopes of eventually selling its creations in China. Online brokerage Click Securities Inc. initially aimed to go public in Japan and then toyed with the idea of listing on Kosdaq because proceedings would have been quicker there.

But Asian stock exchanges for up-and-coming firms such as Kosdaq and Singapore's Catalist may pose tough competition. They have been targeting Japanese firms, providing them with brochures in Japanese and holding briefings in Japan about how to go public on their markets. Meanwhile, the stagnant stock market in Japan and the yen's appreciation, which boosts the currency's purchasing power abroad, have led Japanese firms to make investments in Asia.
