Anna Jiwon Park has been covering the politics at The Korea Times since the summer of 2024, when she joined the press pool for the Office of the President in Korea. Prior to that, she spent about five years reporting extensively on financial markets, regulatory authorities and the financial industry. She joined The Korea Times in 2019 after spending eight years as a broadcast journalist at Arirang TV, Korea’s leading global broadcaster, covering politics, defense and culture.
M&A market logs record-high transactions in H1
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By Anna J. Park
No. of M&A deals records all-time high in H1 as companies seek agility, efficiency
By Anna J. Park
The M&A market during the first half of this year logged a record-high level, in both the number of deals as well as the volume of fiscal transactions.
According to recent statistics compiled by the industry, the number of M&A deals during the first half stood at 160, the highest level in recent years. The amount of the transactions also logged an all-time high of 52.9 trillion won ($46.8 billion), exceeding the total amount of M&A transactional money of last year, which stood at 52.5 trillion won.
The number of major M&A deals that exceeded 50 billion won also jumped to 77 during the first half of this year, nearly doubling the same period of last year, which had 39. There were also seven mega-deals worth over 1 trillion won in the first half, also a record high.
Market watchers attribute the increased activity in the M&A market to local conglomerates' attempts to hike efficiency by selling off businesses that are not their biggest strengths, while acquiring new businesses which they consider to be contributing to the expansion of their market presence.
For instance, Shinsegae Group acquired eBay Korea for 3.4 trillion won, in a move to become a major force in the country's e-commerce sector. SK Group acquired four waste management companies to occupy the newly growing market.
Big-tech platform companies also competed fiercely by acquiring companies that could boost their competencies in the global market. Naver acquired global storytelling platform Wattpad for $600 million in May, and Kakao bought up L.A.-based serialized storytelling app Radish for $440 million in the same month.
Fashion platform businesses also exhibited a heated war of M&As during the first half to beef up their market shares online. Shinsegae acquired online fashion store W Concept, and Kakao in April purchased Zigzag, a mobile-based leading women's fashion shopping app. In an effort to keep up its leading status in the fashion business, Musinsa acquired fashion online retailers StyleShare and 29cm in May.
One of the other major factors of the growth was the huge increase in international M&As.
The number of cross-border deals also logged a record high of 27, including the selling of Hyperconnect, operator of the Korea-headquartered video chat and global messenger platform Azar, to U.S.-based Match Group for $1.72 billion in February. Local private equity firm Centroid Investment acquired global major golf brand TaylorMade in May at a price of 1.9 trillion won. BTS's management firm Hybe acquired U.S. music firm Ithaca Holdings for $1.05 billion.
Other mega-deals are waiting in the local M&A market during the second half of this year as well, including the sales of Daewoo Engineering & Construction, food delivery app Yogiyo and local botulinum toxin license holder Hugel.