이 기사는 2020년 02월 19일 08:00 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

South Korea’s Netmarble has rolled up its sleeves to hire mergers and acquisitions (M&A) professionals to handle post-merger integration (PMI) process following its acquisition of Woongjin Coway.

According to industry sources on Monday, Netmarble posted a job opening on its website earlier this month that the gaming company is looking for investment analysts. The role involves handling tasks relative to investment, post-management of investee companies, and researching on industry and management.

Specifically, investment analysts will hunt for investment opportunities, build investment structure and execute works related to contracts. Netmarble also involved ‘works related to PMI’ as one of the job descriptions, implying the gaming firm is seeking a manager for newly-acquired Woongjin Coway.

Netmarble has been quite active in M&A industry, acquiring and investing in a variety of games companies. The South Korea’s gaming firm bought U.S.-based Jam City in 2015 and Canada-based Kabam in 2017. Netmarble tried to acquire social casino gaming giant Playtika for four trillion won in 2016, although it was beaten by a Chinese competitor.

However, Netmarble’s strong M&A activities have been limited to the gaming industry. Despite its investment in Big Hit Entertainment, Kakao Bank, and companies in artificial intelligence (AI), big data and blockchain industries, the investment amount has been insignificant and profits from those investments have been small.

Such backdrop has surprised market watchers when Netmarble made an unexpected move to participate in a final bidding for Woongjin Coway. Since then, market watchers have paid keen attention to the games company’s growth strategies after the acquisition. Many view that the latest hiring of an M&A professional is to secure talents to materialize its roadmap after the takeover.

After picked as the preferred bidder of Woongjin Coway, Netmarble envisioned combining its games knowledge such as artificial intelligence, cloud and big data technology with Coway’s rental service to foray into subscription-based smart home business.

“Netmarble has made large and small investments so far, but they were largely limited to the gaming industry. The acquisition of Woongjin Coway may have prompted the company to secure strategic investment and post-merger professionals,” said an IB industry insider.

Candidates who have five or more years of experience in corporate and industry research; have analytical skills on finance, corporate and industry; have communication skills and networks which can be utilized in the investment industry are eligible for the application. Netmarble prefers applicants who have prior experience in M&A division of the country’s conglomerates, venture capital firms, private equity firms, or IB division of securities firms.

(By reporter Han Hee-yeon)