Shinsegae Group has decided to acquire the entire stake in SSG.com held by its financial investor (FI), bringing its ownership of the e-commerce platform to 100%.
The two companies disclosed Wednesday that their respective boards had decided to acquire the 30% stake (1,316,492 shares) held by Olympus Cheil First, the FI, with E-mart taking 19.53% (857,036 shares) and Shinsegae taking 10.47% (459,456 shares). The split is proportional to the companies' existing stakes in SSG.com.
The acquisition price is about 965,496 won per share, amounting to approximately 827.4 billion won for E-mart and approximately 443.6 billion won for Shinsegae. The combined acquisition size for the two companies is about 1.271 trillion won. The scheduled acquisition date is Aug. 26. After the transaction, E-mart's stake in SSG.com will rise from 45.58% to 65.11%, while Shinsegae's will expand from 24.42% to 34.89%.
SSG.com has posted net losses for three consecutive years since 2023, and its revenue has also been on a declining trend. Last year, the company recorded revenue of 1.347 trillion won and a net loss of 99.6 billion won. The two companies stated the purpose of the acquisition was "strategic restructuring of the e-commerce business and improving management efficiency."
The transaction follows a shareholders' agreement signed in November 2024 between E-mart, Shinsegae, and the FI, Olympus Cheil First. The two companies decided to exercise the call option granted to major shareholders to acquire the entire FI stake. E-mart and Shinsegae said they would "jointly improve the efficiency of e-commerce business operations and seek to strengthen SSG.com's decision-making system and enhance its mid- to long-term corporate value."
Earlier, Olympus Cheil First entered as a new investor by taking over the 30% stake in SSG.com held by previous FIs Affinity Equity Partners and BRV Capital Management for 1.15 trillion won. At the time, SSG.com's corporate value was assessed at more than 3 trillion won.
However, as Shinsegae Group has declared a separation of affiliates, a task remains for one side to later reduce its SSG.com stake to less than 10%. For this reason, the industry expects the companies to choose methods such as swapping or selling their jointly held stake in Shinsegae Uijeongbu Station.
