TMON and WeMakePrice File for Court Receivership - Impact on the Korean E-Commerce and PG Sectors

• One of the biggest stories in the Korean e-commerce sector this week has been TMON and WeMakePrice filing for court receivership due to liquidity crisis.

• Singapore's Qoo10 is the controlling shareholder of TMON and WeMakePrice. Young-Bae Ku is the largest shareholder of Qoo10 with a 42.77% stake, followed by KKR with a 25.65% stake.

• Competitors such as E-Mart and Coupang are most to benefit. PG companies such as KG Inicis and NHP KCP are negatively impacted.

One of the biggest stories in the Korean e-commerce sector this week has been TMON and WeMakePrice filing for court receivership due to liquidity crisis. Singapore's Qoo10 is the controlling shareholder of TMON and WeMakePrice. In order over the liquidity crisis, Qoo10 plans to sell some of its subsidiaries, use them as collateral for cash, or secure emergency liquidity from overseas funds.

Founded in 2010, Qoo10 is a Singapore e-commerce company founded by Young-Bae Ku, who is one of the founding members of Ebay Korea and Gmarket in Korea. Young-Bae Ku, the founder of Qoo10, has offered nearly all of his assets to relieve this liquidity crunch.

There are nearly 60,000 small merchants that sell their products through TMON and WeMakePrice and many of them have suffered from failed payments at these companies in the past several weeks. As of 29 July, it is estimated that missed payments by TMON and WeMakePrice have grown to about 210 billion won. However, local media have speculated that this figure could surge to as high as nearly 1 trillion won.

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