SK TELECOM
SK Telecom s Chief Executive Park Jung-ho said on Tuesday that it was natural for the country s top mobile carrier to participate in the bidding for eBay Korea, without elaborating further.
A combination of SK s online shopping mall 11Street, with a transaction value of 10 trillion won, and eBay Korea, with 17 trillion won in annual transactions, would create the country s biggest e-commerce player.
With the energy-to-telecom SK Group scaling back on its refining and petrochemical businesses, the acquisition of eBay Korea would balance the group s telecom-heavy business portfolio.
SHINSEGAE
Shinsegae s supermarket chain E-Mart also is keen to buy eBay Korea. The retail group is expected to join forces on the bid with Affinity Equity Partners, the second-largest shareholder of SSG.COM, Shinsegae s e-commerce platform.
South Korea s Kurly Inc., better known by its brand name Market Kurly, has recently terminated its contract with IPO manager Samsung Securities Co., according to investment banking sources on Mar. 15 – just after its founder and Chief Executive Sophie Kim revealed plans to go public within the year.
In 2018 the online grocery food delivery startup picked Samsung Securities to prepare a domestic stock market listing. But its initial public offering was delayed as the startup failed to meet IPO requirements.
The contract cancellation with the Korean brokerage firm might have brought Market Kurly s nearly three-year efforts to go public to naught. But it adds to market speculation that the premium food and gourmet food delivery company may begin the process for a US listing, following in the footsteps of bigger hometown rival Coupang Corp., which listed on the New York Stock Exchange last week.