Input 2021.01.20 12:07
Estimated sale price of 5 trillion won… Lotte, Shinsegae, PEF, etc.
Global online e-commerce (e-commerce) company eBay announced that it is considering the sale of eBay Korea, which operates Gmarket, Auction, and G9 in Korea.
According to Bloomberg News on the 20th, eBay has “began the process of evaluating, reviewing and exploring a wide range of strategic alternatives to Korean businesses,” and “contemplating options to maximize shareholder value and create future business growth opportunities. I said.
Bloomberg said, “EBay has grown significantly as online shopping has increased, but its growth has slowed down to competitors including Amazon.” “EBay currently has 183 million active buyers, with 11% of annual sales. It comes from Korea,” he explained.
Jamie Ianon, who was appointed CEO of eBay in April of last year, is working to improve the company’s constitution. EBay is under pressure from activist investors who have been actively involved in management. This is why it sold the ticket trading site StepHub last year to’Biagogo’ in Switzerland for 4,500 million dollars (4,7648 trillion won).
An official of eBay Korea said, “All matters are carried out at the head office level, and eBay Korea does not know the contents related to the sale.”
◇ eBay Korea, which used to be good…
EBay Korea is known as a’real’ company in the e-commerce industry. In 2019, eBay Korea registered the ‘1 trillion won club’ with commission sales of 1.94 trillion won. The company has been surplus for 15 consecutive years since 2005. This is contrary to Coupang’s annual loss of 1 trillion won.
However, it is pointed out that unlike the appearance, the growth trend is lagging behind. With rocket shipping ahead, it quickly dominated the Coupangi market, and Naver announced the full-scale shopping business. In addition, traditional offline distribution companies such as Shinsegae and Lotte are actively promoting online businesses.
There is also a theory of the limitations of the mail-order business model that connects product sellers and consumers and receives intermediate fees. Recently, e-commerce is switching to direct purchase for differentiated products and fast delivery. It is pointed out that simple mail order business such as eBay Korea is no longer guaranteed to be competitive in Korea.
An official in the investment industry said, “The situation in which eBay was pushed down by Amazon in the United States can be reproduced in Korea, so it would have made the best choice to sell the company at a time when it could receive the highest price.”
◇ 5 trillion won in sales?…regarding candidates for acquisition such as Lotte, Shinsegae, and Hyundai
The key is the ransom price of eBay Korea. It is known that eBay has set a ransom of 5 trillion won or more for eBay Korea. There are many evaluations in the market that the price is set high. The reason is that the acquisition premium is not large due to the weak growth trend.
The industry is paying attention to offline distribution companies such as Lotte, Shinsegae and Hyundai Department Store as the main agents to acquire eBay Korea. Lotte and Shinsegae, which are increasing investments in Lotte On and Shup.com, can quickly rise to the top of the e-commerce market if they acquire eBay Korea. Hyundai Department Store, which operates H Mall, but is evaluated as being less competitive than other companies, can enter the online business in earnest through the acquisition of eBay Korea.
Private equity firms (PEFs) that have secured funding are also mentioned as strong candidates. Large domestic and foreign PEFs secured live ammunition by creating large-scale funds last year, but they moved conservatively considering the corona situation.
The most influential PEF is Coleberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), an American private equity fund manager. KKR became Timon’s largest shareholder in 2015, and participated in an additional investment of 400 billion won earlier this year. In addition, MBK Partners, which acquired Homeplus, and Affinity Equity Partners, which invested in SSG.com, are discussed.