이 기사는 2021년 12월 03일 08시10분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

Ministop Korea has been put up for sale again three years after the convenience store chain failed to find a buyer at an acceptable price in 2018.

Japan’s Aeon Group, which operates Ministop, plans to sell a 100% stake in the South Korean unit of its convenience store business.

Samil PwC handling the sale sent out a teaser to potential buyers, with about six firms reportedly having expressed interest in acquiring the stake. Their preliminary offers range from the lower to upper 300 billion won ($255 million), according to sources.

Some industry experts, however, estimate that Ministop Korea would be valued at less than 300 billion won, compared with a valuation of around 400 billion won it received in the bidding process that was ultimately scrapped in January 2019.

“Things have changed a lot in three years,” said an official at a private equity firm in Seoul. “Bigger rivals are holding a stronger grip in the market, which is likely to reduce the attractiveness of Ministop Korea to potential buyers.”

In its two-page teaser, Ministop Korea relies on the oligopoly structure in the country’s convenience store market to attract prospective buyers. It is the fifth largest player in the country by market share and the second largest by per store sales, Ministop Korea said.

But its gap with bigger competitors remains too large to catch up. Ministop Korea operated about 2,620 stores across the country as of the end of 2020 and plans to increase its stores to 4,000 by 2025.

In comparison, CU and GS25, South Korea’s number one and two convenience store chains, each had more than 14,000 stores as of the end of 2020, followed by 7-Eleven with 10,501 stores and Emart24 with 5,129 stores.

Ministop Korea said in the teaser that its management has a clear vision to grow the company to become the number one convenience store chain in the country and is also working on a strategic roadmap to achieve the goal.

Its financial performance has been weak in recent years. Revenue in the fiscal year ended February 28, 2021 totaled 1.08 trillion won, slightly down from 1.17 trillion won four years ago. Ministop Korea swung to an operating loss of 14.3 billion won and a net loss of 13.8 billion won from a 3.4 billion won operating profit and a 2.5 billion won net profit, respectively, in the same period. (Reporting by Ha-na Suh)