이 기사는 2019년 10월 29일 08:00 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

Kakao Mobility, the mobility unit of South Korea's mobile giant Kakao, actively pursues mergers and acquisitions (M&A) with ample capital. The mobility company has invested at least 65.2 billion won in M&A deals over the past two years.

Kakao Mobility has secured 500 billion won through pre-initial public offering (IPO) in 2017. It intends to strengthen its position in platform business through active M&A deals using its ample capital.

"[Kakao Mobility] has closed the two deals of acquiring taxi companies so far. There is one that the transaction process is in progress after signing a contact and there are some others, but I cannot confirm any details at this stage," said a Kakao mobility official.

Kakao Mobility acquired Jinhwa Taxi and Jungil Industry in Seoul. Each company owns 90 and 98 taxi driving licenses, respectively. The acquisition price per taxi license is reportedly around 50 million won, which would make the total transaction amount 8.6 billion won.

Kakao Mobility is in the process of taking over Kyungseo taxi, which reportedly owns some 100 taxi licenses. Kakao Mobility is expected to pay about five billion won for the taxi company.

Kakao Mobility acquired a 30 percent stake at Tago Solutions at three billion won last year, and took over remaining 70 percent on September 11. That makes Kakao Mobility securing a 100 percent take at Tago Solutions with the acquisition cost estimated to exceed 10 billion won. Tago Solutions, a taxi franchise consisting of some 50 taxi operators, launched taxi-hailing service Waygo Blue this year.

"So far the [Kakao Mobility's] role has been limited to technical support, but [we] intend to graft platform-based ability onto expertise in service operations. We expect this will be efficient for Waygo Blue to expand nationwide," said a Kakao Mobility official.

The largest M&A deal that Kakao Mobility has pursued over the last two years is the acquisition of carpool startup Luxi in February 2018. It acquired the entire stake in Luxi for about 25.2 billion won from Hyundai Motor and other investors.

In October 2018, Kakao Mobility invested in 16.5 billion won in a domestic navigation software developer EnGIS Technologies and Japanese taxi booking app JapanTaxi.

It is said Kakao Mobility currently is reviewing acquisitions of six taxi companies including the three already fixed. Such movement came as the conflict with taxi companies intensified amid Kakao Mobility's plan to launch a carpool service.

Kakao Mobility also established a partnership with Splyt, a London-based transportation software provider, to allow customers to hail a taxi or bike through KakaoT application in Vietnam, using Southeast Asia's largest ride-hailing app Grab.

(By reporter Suh Ha-na)