이 기사는 2022년 01월 18일 07시53분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

Kakao Mobility may have to postpone the timeline to list its shares as its parent company decided to rethink the timing of initial public offerings of unlisted Kakao affiliates in response to public criticism about the recent share sell-offs by some of Kakao Pay’s executives.

Kakao Corp’s Corporate Alignment Center (CAC), the company’s management body that oversees operations of the group’s affiliates, said on January 13 that it had set out new rules for the sale of shares by its affiliates’ executives.

A statement released on Kakao Corp’s website said that chief executives and other executives of its affiliates would not be able to sell their shares for two years and one year, respectively, from an initial public offering.

The announcement comes after eight executives of Kakao Pay, including its chief executive Alex Young-joon Ryu, cashed out their shares in the company totaling 90 billion won ($75.5 million) only a month after its IPO last November, drawing the anger of shareholders.

Kakao’s CAC said that it would also reconsider the timing of IPOs being prepared by its affiliates “to grow as a company that upholds social responsibility”.

This is likely to lead to another delay in the timeline of Kakao Mobility’s IPO. Kakao’s mobility business unit, which provides a taxi-hailing service through its app Kakao T, kicked off a process to choose its IPO underwriters last August but halted the process after its hike of charges and aggressive expansion sparked criticism from the public and politicians.

Kakao Mobility resumed the process in early December, but postponed the selection of advisers once again following the controversy over share sales by Kakao Pay’s executives.

“The process to pick IPO underwriters likely needs to be put on hold until the decision is made at the group level,” an official at Kakao Mobility said.

Further delay in its IPO, however, may put the company in trouble with its investors. Kakao Mobility raised 500 billion won from a private equity consortium led by TPG in 2017 with a promise to go public by 2022.

The company has since continued to raise money from external investors, with an over 610 billion won influx of cash last year from high-profile investors such as foreign firms Carlyle Group and Alphabet and domestic conglomerates LG and GS.

In the meantime, Kakao Mobility plans to focus on expanding the business beyond a taxi-hailing service into new areas such as smart logistics and autonomous driving. It also recently met with a committee consisting of representatives from taxi companies and owner-driver taxis in an effort to achieve shared growth with its stakeholders. (Reporting by Seul-gi Kim)