An anti-Coupang alliance is forming! South Korea's Naver and E-Mart discuss equity swap

As Coupang once again raised the price range of its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange, the amount of financing this time also rose to a maximum of US$4 billion, which also increased the pressure on other Korean e-commerce companies!

According to Korean media reports, in order to consolidate its position as the number one operator in online shopping, Naver is currently discussing an alliance with E-Mart ( a large supermarket under the Shinsegae Group of South Korea ) , including a method of exchanging shares.

Earlier, Shinsegae Group Vice President Jung Young-jin and E-Mart CEO Kang Hee-seok met with Naver Global Investment Officer (GIO) Lee Hae-jin and Naver CEO Han Sung-sook at Naver's office in Gyeonggi Province at the end of January this year. Naver CEO Han Sung-sook also said at an online press conference held on the 2nd, " If a cooperation plan can be put forward, we will consider the possibility of cooperation. "

Although an E- Mart official said, " After the executives of both sides met in January this year , they are discussing a comprehensive cooperation plan. But no specific decision has been made yet . " However , according to multiple sources in the investment banking and retail industries, Naver and E- Mart plan to sign an agreement as early as next week to exchange stocks worth 250 billion won. The two are finalizing the agreement.

The Korean industry believes that after Naver established a comprehensive strategic partnership with CJ Group in the fields of cultural content and logistics last year , they exchanged a total of about 600 billion won in shares (Naver purchased 7.85% of CJ Logistics' shares), so it is very likely that CJ Logistics will also be included in the cooperation between Naver and E-Mart .

Naver's share of the online shopping market last year was 16.6%. Its position as Korea's largest search engine has made its e-commerce business rank first in Korea's e-commerce market share.

But even so, Naver only leads the second-ranked pure e-commerce company Coupang (13%) by a slight margin.

This situation was broken when Coupang supplemented its funds by listing in the United States. Even a strong Korean IT giant like Naver had to start looking for an alliance.

Korean e-commerce

Naver

Coupang