Park Jae-hyuk is a seasoned journalist who has provided comprehensive coverage of South Korea's corporate dynamics, economic policies, industry challenges and the global positioning of Korean companies. Based on the articles he has written since joining The Korea Times in 2016, his investigative approach has helped readers understand corporate governance, economic trends and business strategies shaping South Korea’s economy.
Hollys aims to go public in 2024
KG Hollys F&B CEO Lee Jong-hyun / Courtesy of KG Hollys F&B
By Park Jae-hyuk
IPOs of Starbucks Korea, Twosome, Ediya remain unclear
By Park Jae-hyuk
Hollys Coffee's franchiser recently unveiled plans to go public by the end of 2024, in an apparent attempt to outrun Starbucks Coffee Korea, A Twosome Place and Ediya Coffee, which have been viewed as candidates to become the first coffeehouse chain to be listed on the local stock market.
“Until the end of 2024, I will extend our businesses horizontally and vertically to achieve the goal of an initial public offering (IPO),” Lee Jong-hyun, the former chief financial officer of KFC Korea who was appointed the new KG Hollys F&B CEO, said Wednesday.
KG Group took over KFC's Korea operation in 2017 from CVC Capital, and acquired Hollys last year from IMM Private Equity. According to the company, the new CEO has specialized in drawing up brand strategies and conducting M&A projects.
However, it is still unclear whether his ambitious IPO plan will succeed, considering that multiple coffee shop operators here, including Coffee Bean Korea, Coffine Gurunaru and Caffe Bene, have failed in their attempts to go public.
Anchor Equity Partners had also sought to list A Twosome Place on the stock market earlier this year, but the Hong Kong-based private equity fund (PEF) ditched the plan in June, amid growing doubts among local securities firms about the coffee shop franchise's valuation.
According to industry sources, Anchor is in talks with Carlyle to sell A Twosome Place to the U.S. PEF.
There is no specific timeline for Ediya's IPO, despite comments by the company's Chairman Moon Chang-ki who said in a New Year address in January that management would resume efforts to list the company on the benchmark KOSPI market, after they had been on hold since 2018.
In 2017, Ediya selected Mirae Asset Securities as the underwriter for its IPO. But a year later, the franchiser abruptly postponed the plan indefinitely, amid growing protest from its franchisees.
Ediya explained that its chairman's remarks earlier this year were simply intended not to rule out the possibility of the company going public in the long run.
Some market observers are betting on the listing of Starbucks Korea after E-mart became its largest shareholder in July with a 67.5 percent stake.
The discount store chain of Shinsegae Group, which owned a 50 percent stake in Starbucks Korea at that time, decided to acquire an additional 17.5 percent stake from the coffeehouse's U.S. headquarters, after joining hands with GIC, which decided to buy the remaining 32.5 percent stake in Starbucks Korea.
The acquisition deal raised speculation that Shinsegae agreed to list Starbucks Korea on the stock market within a few years, so that the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund could make a profit through its divestment following the IPO.
Shinsegae, however, has denied the speculation, so the Starbucks Korea IPO plan remains unclear at this moment.