EBay to sell S.Korean unit for about $3.6 bln to Shinsegae, Naver -media (updated)

E-Mart

16/06/2021 07:26

(Adds E-Mart statement)
    By Joyce Lee
    SEOUL, June 16 (Reuters) - EBay  EBAY.O  will sell its South
Korean business to retailer Shinsegae Group's E-Mart Inc
 139480.KS  and web portal operator Naver  035420.KS  for about
4 trillion won ($3.6 billion), local newspapers reported on
Wednesday. 
    EBay Korea is the country's third-largest e-commerce firm
with market share of about 12.8% in 2020, according to
Euromonitor. It operates the platforms Gmarket, Auction and G9.
    E-Mart said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday that it was
talking with eBay Inc after entering a binding bid for acquiring
eBay Korea this month, but that nothing had been finalised. 
    Naver and eBay Korea declined to comment. 
    Lotte Shopping  023530.KS  had also been in the running, the
Korea Economic Daily and other newspapers said, citing unnamed
investment banking sources. 
    South Korea represents the world's fourth largest e-commerce
market. Driven by the coronavirus pandemic, e-commerce has
soared to account for 35.8% of the retail market in 2020
compared with 28.6% in 2019, according to Euromonitor data. 
    Shinsegae and Naver formed a retail and e-commerce
partnership in March by taking stakes worth 250 billion won in
each other's affiliates.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nS6N2JV01Z

($1 = 1,117.7000 won)

 (Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Gerry
Doyle)
 ((jungyoon.lee@tr.com; +82 2 6936 1467;))