SK Telecom, Shinsegae Group amongst bidders for eBay’s Korean small business

By Joyce Lee

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s SK Telecom, retailer Shinsegae Team and personal fairness organization MBK Associates have been amid individuals that entered non-binding, preliminary bids for the sale of eBay Inc’s South Korean enterprise, the telecom organization and two sources with expertise of the make a difference stated on Tuesday.

EBay Korea operates open up marketplace e-commerce platforms Gmarket, Auction and G9, and was South Korea’s 3rd-largest e-commerce organization in 2020 with 12.8% market share, in accordance to Euromonitor.

The resources declined to be determined as not authorised to speak to media. MBK Partners, Shinsegae Group and eBay Korea declined to comment.

Seoul-dependent analysts stated that eBay hopes to fetch up to 5 trillion received (S4.42 billion) with the sale.

Nonetheless, they explained the true sale selling price may well be lessen, because of to its the latest fall in market place share compared to rivals these types of as Korea’s No. 1 e-commerce agency Coupang, and down sides of the unit’s common “open market place” kind of e-commerce which only connects sellers with prospective buyers.

EBay Korea’s sector share has been overtaken in the latest several years by Coupang, which straight handles stock, differentiated alone with speedy shipping and raised all-around $4.6 billion in a blockbuster New York listing previously this month, as nicely as Naver Corp, which operates South Korea’s dominant on-line look for portal.

EBay Korea’s 2020 income was believed to be about 1.3 trillion won, with a 5.3% on-calendar year enhance in transactions, in contrast to a 19% expansion in South Korean e-commerce industry, KTB Financial investment & Securities analyst Kim Jin-woo stated.

(Reporting by Joyce Lee, editing by Louise Heavens)