"From Postponement to Withdrawal" This Year's IPO Market Cools Down... Retail Sector Slows Pace

Major Companies Postpone or Withdraw Plans to Next Year
Kurly to Decide on Securities Registration Statement Submission Within About a Month
Oasis Awaits Results After September Listing Preliminary Review Request
11st and SSG.com 'After Next Year', CJ Olive Young Withdraws This Year's Listing
Frozen IPO Market, "Flexible Response According to Situation with Speed Adjustment"

Olive Young store image. Photo by Olive Young

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Yuri] Due to the cooling of the initial public offering (IPO) market this year, the 'distribution hopefuls' that had announced their listings have all simultaneously slowed down. Their strategy is to focus on strengthening their fundamentals for the time being and to respond flexibly while monitoring market conditions next year.

According to the distribution industry on the 22nd, none of the major distribution companies that had announced IPOs this year have proceeded with their listings. The only companies that have relatively concretized their progress are Kurly and Oasis Market, but both have postponed their listings to next year.

Kurly, which passed the preliminary review for listing by the Korea Exchange on August 22, must complete the listing procedures by February 22 of next year, the validity period. To conduct demand forecasting and other steps beforehand, the securities registration statement must be submitted by the end of January. If listing is to be done after February 22, the preliminary review application process must be repeated. Kurly maintains its position of "proceeding at the most appropriate time for listing," but industry insiders believe internal deliberations are deep due to the frozen market conditions. Oasis Market also applied for a preliminary review to the exchange in September and is awaiting the results. Oasis Market has no change in its stance on continuing to pursue listing. Oasis Market stated, "We plan to proceed with the procedures as scheduled after passing the preliminary review."

With the listing pace delayed compared to the original plan, Kurly and Oasis Market are simultaneously expanding their scale and strengthening new businesses from a mid- to long-term perspective. Kurly launched 'Beauty Kurly' following 'Market Kurly' this year, expanding into non-food categories. To expand the dawn delivery (Saetbyeol delivery) area, they will open additional logistics centers in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, and Changwon, Gyeongnam in the first half of next year. Currently, they have logistics centers in Songpa-gu, Seoul, and Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province. Oasis Market, the only profitable company in the e-commerce industry, received investments of 10 billion KRW and 33 billion KRW from Home & Shopping and E-Land Retail, respectively. Collaborating with E-Land Retail, they opened the online mall 'Kim's Oasis' and established the joint venture 'Oasis Alpha' with KT Alpha Shopping. They also plan to expand commerce business through the quick commerce service 'V,' which will be launched in the first quarter of next year.

11st aims to go public next year. 11st is focusing on the '11st 2.0' strategy, which leverages technology-driven e-commerce to maximize corporate value. Ahead of the listing, 11st established a dual CEO system with Ha Hyung-il and Ahn Jung-eun for the first time since its incorporation. SSG.com, which had announced an IPO this year, has also revised its strategy and plans to respond flexibly according to market conditions without specifying a timeline.

Olive Young postponed its IPO this year. It withdrew its listing in August due to the IPO market downturn. At the time of pre-IPO fundraising in 2020, Olive Young's corporate value was about 1.8 trillion KRW, and it rose to 4 trillion KRW when selecting the listing underwriter last year. Lee Seon-jung, appointed in October as the youngest CEO within the group and the first female CEO of CJ Olive Young, must address not only Olive Young's qualitative and quantitative growth but also the challenges related to the listing.

An industry insider said, "As the IPO market rapidly cooled this year, most distribution companies preparing for listings postponed their schedules," adding, "For the time being, the atmosphere will continue to invest in strengthening fundamentals while monitoring market conditions."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.