Shinsegae acquires 80% stake in eBay Korea for $3 billion

According to Korean media reports, on June 24, Shinsegae signed an agreement with eBay, and its subsidiary E-Mart acquired 80% of eBay's shares in the Korean market for 3.44 trillion won (about 3 billion US dollars).

Since eBay decided to sell its Korean market in early January this year, it has attracted widespread attention in the Korean retail industry. A few days ago, the situation was that Shinsegae and Naver were competing together, but in the final stage Naver announced its withdrawal, and the cooperation between eBay and Shinsegae ended. Unlike the previously reported $3.9 billion, in this signed agreement, Shinsegae only acquired 80% of the shares, and eBay still retained 20%.

In 2020, eBay accounted for 12% of the Korean e-commerce market, and the local Naver ranked first with 18%, followed by Coupang with 13%, while Shinsegae's market share was only 3%. Through this acquisition, Shinsegae's position in the e-commerce industry will be greatly improved, and it may rise to the second place.

Although Shinsegae is the largest retailer in South Korea, its main business is offline sales. With the development of e-commerce in recent years, the traditional retail industry has faced great challenges, especially the outbreak of the epidemic, which has promoted the shift of consumer habits to online shopping. Under this social situation, Shinsegae has also set its sights on the e-commerce field, and the acquisition of eBay Korea is a perfect opportunity.

eBay said that this cooperation will bring together e-commerce and offline retail, give full play to their respective advantages, build a 360-degree ecosystem, and create greater possibilities in the Korean market.

Shinsegae believes that with the help of eBay platform, E-Mart's online sales will also increase to 50% of total sales. From department stores to leisure, Shinsegae can cover almost every aspect of people's daily life. It plans to invest at least 1 trillion won in the development of online shopping in the next four years, while using offline stores as the front line of online retail to maximize logistics productivity and efficiency.

The handover will be completed by the end of this year or early next year, subject to approval from South Korean regulators.

eBay

South Korea

Acquisition