EBay will sell its South Korean business to retailer Shinsegae Group’s E-Mart Inc and web portal operator Naver for around 4 trillion won ($3.6 billion), local papers reported Wednesday.
EBay Korea is the country’s third-biggest e-commerce firm with market share of about 12.8% in 2020, as per Euromonitor. It operates the platforms Gmarket, Auction and G9.
E-Mart said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday that it was discussing with eBay Inc subsequent to entering a binding bid for buying eBay Korea this month, however that nothing had been concluded.
Naver and eBay Korea declined to remark.
Lotte Shopping had likewise been in the race, the Korea Economic Daily and different papers said, referring to anonymous investment banking sources.
South Korea is the world’s fourth biggest e-commerce market. Driven by the Covid pandemic, e-commerce has soared to represent 35.8% of the retail market in 2020 contrasted with 28.6% in 2019, as indicated by Euromonitor data.
Shinsegae and Naver formed a retail and e-commerce association in March by taking stakes worth 250 billion won in each other’s affiliates.
