이 기사는 2020년 03월 09일 08시00분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

South Korea’s SK Networks announced it would sell its gas station business to a consortium of Koramco and Hyundai Oilbank.

SK Networks has decided to sell its petroleum retail operations by selling real estate assets associated with the business to Koramco, while handing over assets and workforce related to the operations of gas stations to Hyundai Oilbank for a total of about 1.3 trillion won, according to a regulatory filing on March 4. The transaction, approved by the company’s board of directors on the same day, is expected to complete in June.

Specifically, Koramco REITs Management and Trust and its REIT subsidiary, Koramco Energy Plus REIT, will pay 300.1 billion won and 965.2 billion won, respectively, while the remaining 66.8 billion won will be paid by Hyundai Oilbank.

“Based on the agreement, land and buildings belonging to 199 gas stations owned by the company will be handed over to Koramco REITs Management and Trust and Koramco Energy Plus REIT. And separately, the right to lease and tangible assets related to the operations of 103 gas stations leased by the company will be sold to Hyundai Oilbank,” a representative from SK Networks said. “We will make our best effort to make a smooth transition, and will also focus on increasing the company’s value by utilizing the proceeds from the sale.”

SK Networks, the trading and retail arm of the country’s third largest conglomerate SK Group, is expected to use the proceeds to improve its financial health. Since Choi Shin-won, Chairman of SK Networks, took office in 2016, it has made significant moves in the M&A market in an effort to reshape its business portfolio.

In 2016, the company acquired Tongyang Magic (now SK Magic) for 610 billion won, thereby entering the home appliance rental market. It also invested in AJ Rent-a-Car (now SK Rent-a-Car) in 2018, followed by purchasing an additional stake in the following year to expand its car rental business in size.

Since then, both home appliance rental services and car rental services have become one of the key businesses of SK Networks, though a series of acquisitions adversely affected the company’s financial condition. The company’s debt ratio rose to 342 percent in 2019 compared to 236 percent in the previous year.

Changes in lease accounting rules with the adoption of IFRS 16 also had a negative effect on the balance sheet of the company, resulting in increased lease obligations. The company’s net debt stood at 4.7 trillion won as of the end of December 2019, a 1.6 trillion won increase from a year ago.

SK Networks is also expected to use part of the money from the sale to continue investment in its key business areas. The company plans to expand into the future mobility business by using its car rental services as a stepping stone.

“We will try to continue to deliver stable earnings performance through a more improved revenue structure,” the representative said.

(By reporter Kim Sung-jin)