October 30, 2024

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Private equity firm Unison Capital announced on Nov. 21 that it will buy a 60 percent stake in local online shoe shopping mall operator Sappun for 35 billion won ($29.7 million).

Sappun’s corporate value is estimated to be around 60 billion won. 

The two companies will sign a stock purchase agreement this week and close the deal before the year-end.

KR&Partners will manage the whole deal process.

Established in 2014, Sappun sells women’s shoes at its online shopping mall. The company initially began selling shoes from different brands and from 2016 launched its own brand Sappun.

Sappun is currently Korean’s top online shoe shopping mall with around 50 billion won annual sales on average.

Industry sources say that Sappun chose Unison Capital to be its strategic partner after seeing the PEF successfully expanded tea franchise GongCha’s brand worldwide.

The PEF acquired both GongCha Korea and Royal Tea Taiwan, the headquarters of the Gong Cha franchise to make synergies and boost overall its global business in 19 countries. Most recently, the PEF profited a whopping 279 billion won from selling Gong Cha Korea, in which it had invested about 71 billion won.

By Song Seung-hyun (ssh@heraldcorp.com)