 |
A promotional image of SSG.com |
SSG.com, the e-commerce arm of South Korean retail giant Shinsegae Group, said Wednesday it has selected managers for its initial public offering with a goal to make a market debut in 2022.
According to the officials, the company chose Mirae Asset Securities and Citigroup Global Markets Korea Securities as the lead underwriters of its IPO deal, with Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase & Co. also joining as members of the underwriter group.
The exact size of the deal and the date of listing have not yet been decided, but the company said it is accelerating the IPO to secure funds to invest in its logistics infrastructure and information technology systems and construct an online-to-offline commerce ecosystem.
“While most rival firms posted hundreds of billions of won worth of operating losses each year, we have logged ‘manageable’ levels of profits since our official launch (in late 2018). That’s our competitiveness when it comes to fulfilling local listing requirements,” a SSG.com official said.
The online shopping platform’s sales in the January-June period reached 686.6 billion won ($587 million), increasing 11 percent from 618.7 billion won from a year earlier. Its operating losses narrowed to 29.6 billion won from a deficit of 33.4 billion won a year ago.
Meanwhile, competition among local e-commerce platform companies is becoming fierce as they are rushing to tap the local stock market. Market Kurly has launched a procedure to pick lead underwriters for its IPO, while Oasis chose NH Investment & Securities and Korea Investment & Securities as its lead underwriters. 11st is also pushing ahead for an IPO in 2023.
By Jie Ye-eun (
yeeun@heraldcorp.com)
