SK Holdings buys 11.77% of e-Shang Redwood

SK Holdings announced it would buy 11.77 percent of Chinese logistics firm e-Shang Redwood Group’s newly issued stock, worth some 372 billion won ($333.3 million), in a disclosure Tuesday.

The holding company of South Korea’s second-largest conglomerate in market capitalization aims to tap into the “explosive growth in e-commerce market” in China through the purchase, the firm said in a release. 

SK Holdings’ decision in the board meeting Tuesday came in tandem with the purchase of pharmaceutical firm Bristol-Myers Squibb’s manufacturing facility in Ireland in June and the acquisition of silicon wafer maker LG Siltron in a 620 billion won deal in January.

In 2016, e-Shang Cayman merged with Singaporean firm Redwood Group Asia, five years after e-Shang was founded, to expand its presence in the logistics sector following the boom in e-commerce in China. E-Shang Redwood operates logistics facilities in China, Japan and Singapore, and is seeking penetration in South Korea with its first logistics center under construction in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province.

By Son Ji-hyoung (consnow@heraldcorp.com)