EBay Korea, which operates e-commerce companies Gmarket, Auction, and G9, has been on sale. Last year, the domestic online transaction market was estimated at 160 trillion won, and eBay Korea’s online mall transaction amount reached 19 trillion won per year, the largest in Korea along with Naver and Coupang. The ransom price of eBay Korea is expected to be about 5 trillion won. Private equity funds (PEF), including Coleberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), an American private equity fund manager, which is the largest shareholder of the online shopping mall’Timon,’ are mentioned as acquisition companies. Existing e-commerce companies such as Naver, Coupang, and Kakao Shopping, or large retailers such as Lotte Shopping, E-Mart, and GS Retail, can also occupy the No. 1 position in the industry by merging with eBay Korea, leading to a shift in perception of the’distribution platform’ .
On the 20th, eBay in the US announced that it has “began a process to evaluate, review, and mark out a wide range of strategic alternatives to Korean businesses.” . Although eBay did not use the expression’sell’, it actually formalized the sale through the expression’strategic alternative, maximizing shareholder value’. EBay entered the Korean market by acquiring a stake in Auction in 2001. EBay invested about 850 billion won in the auction purchase alone. The reason eBay is considering withdrawal after 20 years of entry into the Korean market is related to the restructuring of its US headquarters business. The eBay headquarters, which is behind Amazon in the US e-commerce market, has been attacked by activist hedge funds since early last year. Activist funds such as Elliott Management are demanding the sale and spin-off of subsidiaries including eBay Korea.
There is an analysis that eBay Korea has already been pushed by Naver Shopping in its competitiveness, and the e-commerce market is fluctuating with 11st Street with Amazon.
EBay Korea’s sales were 1,954 trillion won in 2019, significantly lower than the industry’s No. 1 Coupang (7 trillion won). However, the transaction amount is 19 trillion won per year, which is the highest level of domestic e-commerce companies along with Naver and Coupang. Unlike Coupang, which is recording a deficit of nearly 1 trillion won, eBay Korea is the only e-commerce industry to achieve a surplus for 15 consecutive years. In 2019, it achieved an operating profit of 61.5 billion won amid the offensive of Coupang and Naver.
The ransom price of eBay Korea is expected to be around 5 trillion won. The fact that eBay Korea has fewer than 1,000 employees is considered the attraction of the acquisition. Another advantage is that the cost can be improved by integrating three companies, including Gmarket, Auction, and G9.
In the investment banking (IB) industry, it is said that TMON’s largest shareholder, KKR, an American private equity fund manager, is showing interest in acquiring eBay Korea. In addition, MBK Partners, which acquired Homeplus, and Affinity Equity Partners, which invested in SSG.com, are also discussed. An official from a management-participating private equity fund manager said, “Yogi-Yoga, who claims the value of 2 trillion won by the delivery hero (DH), has not yet announced the sale of the company. Said.
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