Excited to change the owner of a prestigious professional baseball team in 21 years
SK, after 21 years, stepped out of professional baseball and supported other sports
Focused on where to use the club acquisition price and sale price
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Shinsegae Group will take over the professional baseball team SK Wyverns. In 2000, it changed from Ssangbangwool Raiders to SK Wyverns, and 21 years after its founding, the owner of a prestigious professional baseball team will change.
According to the business community on the 25th, SK Group and Shinsegae Group are planning to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) regarding the sale of the baseball team on the 26th. SK Telecom, which owns 100% of SK Wyverns, plans to hold a board meeting on the same day to approve the sale. E-Mart is expected to be the subject of the acquisition. It is known that the sale price is being adjusted. Both sides said, “We are in discussions on the development direction of Korean sports including professional baseball.”
If the sale is successful, SK will withdraw from professional baseball 21 years after acquiring the Ssangbangwool Raiders club in 2000. SK Wyverns is a prestigious club that has won four times in the Korean series since its foundation. With the sale of SK Wyverns, SK Group is expected to further strengthen support for unpopular sports such as fencing and women’s handball. Shinsegae is expected to have the effect of marketing distribution and sports and enhancing corporate image.
It is known that Jung Yong-jin, vice chairman of Shinsegae, has usually shown interest in running a baseball team. For this reason, it was also mentioned as a candidate for the acquisition of the Seoul Heroes club. In fact, Vice Chairman Jeong once said, “A competitor of a large mart can be a ballpark or a theme park rather than other retailers.”
Shinsegae Vice Chairman Jeong Yong-jin will take over SK Wyverns and begin sports marketing in earnest. The industry’s attention is focused on what synergy will be created through collaboration with sports through the distribution industry, the main business, and the acquisition of baseball teams. According to the distribution and sports industry on that day, E-Mart signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with SK Telecom for the acquisition of SK Wyverns in the near future. SK Wyverns is 100% owned by SK Telecom. The specific acquisition method and price are not known. Considering the fact that Hyundai Group acquired Pacific Dolphins for 47 billion won in 1995 and the recent Doosan creditors set a fair value of Doosan Bears at 200 billion won, it is expected to exceed 200 billion won.
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This acquisition of SK Wyverns is an analysis that strongly reflects the will to experience space, the future of offline distribution channels, emphasized by Vice Chairman Jeong Yong-jin. Vice Chairman Jeong is predicting that the acquisition of the baseball team will create a new business model that can generate synergy with the distribution business. Vice Chairman Chung has repeatedly expressed his will to provide an experience-type space that can only be enjoyed offline even when the central axis of shopping is shifting online. It is in the same vein that 30% of the total investment was invested in E-Mart store renewal last year. In announcing Starfield Hanam, the first shopping theme park that opened in Korea in 2016, he stated that “the future rival of the distribution industry will be a theme park or a ballpark,” and set the future of the offline distribution industry as an experience type.
In the industry, it is predicted that professional baseball can become synergistic content that will bring a new breeze to E-Mart, which has struggled with offline business due to Corona 19. In particular, in the case of professional baseball spectators, most of the spectators are younger generations, so it can be a contact point for securing future customers. In fact, 60% of the professional baseball spectators are in their 20s and 30s, which is a good opportunity to inform them of the E-Mart brand and regain the MZ generation (born in the early 1980s to early 2000s) that was lost to late-stage online retailers. to be. In the case of baseball, as a representative urban sport, E-Mart is expected to consider synergies based on this point.
In fact, the sports team served as a good tool for distribution and food companies to expand their contacts with consumers. In the past, Obi Beer ran the Obi Bears club, the predecessor of Doosan Bears. Obi Beer was a member of the Doosan Group and was sold to AB InBev in 1998. In this process, Obi Bears remained with the Doosan Group, leaving the team name as Doosan Bears. Recently, as the Doosan Group suffered a liquidity crisis, there were observations that Doosan Bears would come out for sale and return to Obi Beer, but it is known that negotiations have not actually progressed.
There are also voices of concern over E-Mart’s acquisition of the baseball team. There are also voices saying that the synergy that can be obtained through the acquisition of the baseball team in a situation where profits are urgent as the baseball spectators are hardly entered due to Corona 19. In fact, as it became known that Lotte Giants recently received a 5 billion won loan from its affiliate Lotte Capital, a management crisis rumored that it would be difficult to manage the club. Shinsegae Group said, “SKT and Shinsegae Group are in discussions on the development direction of Korean sports, including professional baseball,” and said, “As discussions are still underway, details cannot be disclosed.”
Meanwhile, the business community is paying attention to how SK Group will use the proceeds from the sale of the baseball team in the future. Currently, SK Wyverns is a subsidiary of SK Telecom, and it is said that SK Telecom is in charge of sales negotiations and other business affairs. A business official explained, “As SK Group is changing its portfolio around future industries such as high-tech materials, eco-friendliness, and bio, it seems that it has decided to sell the baseball team in order to continue its investments.”
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/ Reporter Boris Kim [email protected]
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