이 기사는 2021년 11월 16일 08시09분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

Emart, part of South Korea’s conglomerate Shinsegae Group, has completed its 3.56 trillion won ($3 billion) acquisition of eBay Korea in the largest-ever deal in the company’s history. With roughly half of the acquisition cost being funded through debt, the supermarket chain is expected to accelerate asset disposals to improve its financial position.

Emart said in a regulatory filing last Thursday that it had injected 3.56 trillion won into its special purpose vehicle subsidiary, Emerald SPV Co Ltd, bringing its total contribution to the SPV to 3.587 trillion won.

Emerald SPV on Monday paid about 3.56 trillion won to buy an 80.01% stake in Apollo Korea, which holds 100% of eBay Korea. Apollo Korea is a subsidiary of US-headquartered eBay Inc’s UK unit, eBay KTA.

The deal’s closing comes about four and a half months after Emart and the US ecommerce giant signed an agreement in June. Emart’s acquisition spree has continued in the meantime.

Emart had cash and cash equivalents of 594.3 billion won as of the end of 2020 on a non-consolidated basis. In the first half of this year, it raised 600 billion won via a corporate bond sale, 682 billion won by selling its Gayang branch, and 164 billion won by disposing of its Vietnamese operations.

The proceeds from these transactions were used to purchase real estate assets in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, in an 867 billion won deal as part of the company’s investment in the travel and leisure business, and to acquire stakes in Starbucks Korea and a baseball team for 474 billion won and 40 billion won, respectively.

Emart’s continued investment resulted in a decline in cash and cash equivalents, which stood at 319.7 billion won at the end of September this year. Apart from that, the company had about 1.65 trillion won in short-term investments.

To fund shortfall needed to acquire eBay Korea, Emart took out loans totaling 1 trillion won, with land and buildings belonging to some of its stores used as collateral. It also sold bonds worth 520 billion won in August.

The company’s leverage is likely to spike post the acquisition of eBay Korea. Going forward Emart is expected to accelerate asset disposals to improve its financial position and continue to invest in growth. Later this month, it is set to secure 1.22 trillion won from the sale of its head office in Seongsu-dong, eastern Seoul.

Emart is also expected to continue efforts to “redeploy assets” toward online retail. The supermarket chain had tangible assets of more than 8.4 trillion won at the end of September. It intends to use the proceeds from sales of tangible assets to expand its online businesses such as SSG.com, eBay Korea and W Concept Korea.

“The acquisition of eBay Korea is part of our efforts to shift to digital,” an Emart official said. “We will also continue efforts to strengthen our balance sheet.” (Reporting by Seon-ho Kim)