Risk of a 1 Trillion Won Settlement Bomb Explosion... Can Qoo10 Secure Funding?

Seller Unsettled Payments Currently 210 Billion Won... Expected to Increase Further in June

As the settlement amounts that TMON and WEMAKEPRICE will have to return to sellers are expected to balloon like a snowball, attention is focused on whether the funding plan revealed by Koo Young-bae, CEO of Qoo10, can resolve the issue.

On the 29th, the government task force (TF) from related ministries announced that the unsettled amount related to seller damages in this incident is estimated to be about 210 billion KRW. They also anticipated that the scale would increase further considering the transactions with upcoming settlement dates.

CEO Koo Young-bae of Qoo10 also stated, "It is difficult to accurately estimate the scale of seller damages due to various variable factors at present, but if the two companies fail to promptly restore the existing settlement support system with their partners, the scale of seller damages is expected to increase."

On the 29th, as the 'Unsettled Sales Payment Incident' of Wemakeprice and Tmon continues, citizens are passing by in front of the Tmon building in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jo Yongjun jun21@

The unsettled amount of 210 billion KRW estimated by the government refers to amounts not settled up to May. Considering that TMON and WEMAKEPRICE had a settlement cycle of about two months, the sales from last month and this month will sequentially become unsettled amounts.

The problem is that as this issue surfaced, sellers are withdrawing, causing the funds flowing into the companies to sharply decrease, making it inevitable that the unsettled sales amounts for June and July will grow larger. Industry insiders estimate that the unsettled amount for June from TMON and WEMAKEPRICE could be around 500 billion to 600 billion KRW, and when adding seller settlement amounts from other affiliates such as Qoo10 and Wish, the total could exceed 1 trillion KRW.

CEO Koo plans to raise this money through funding and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) at the Qoo10 group level. He also revealed plans to sell or use as collateral his entire stake in Qoo10. CEO Koo holds 42.8% of Qoo10 shares. Monster Holdings owns 25.6%, and Wonder Holdings owns 18.0%. This shareholding structure appears to have been created through a stock exchange method when acquiring TMON and WEMAKEPRICE. Considering the value at the time of the sale of TMON and WEMAKEPRICE, CEO Koo’s Qoo10 stake could have been worth several hundred billion KRW, but industry evaluations suggest that given the current situation and urgent need for funds, it may be difficult to obtain desired conditions.

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