이 기사는 2021년 04월 12일 08:17 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

Yogiyo, Delivery Hero’s South Korean unit, has reduced its marketing efforts over the last year despite rivals continuing to heavily invest to expand their share in the burgeoning food delivery market, raising questions among potential buyers of the company.

Yogiyo’s gross merchandise value (GMV) grew 59% to 2.9 trillion won ($2.6 billion) in 2020, according to an information memorandum sent to prospective buyers. Revenue also increased 53% to 353 billion won in the same period.

Notably, its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization turned positive to 47 billion won, compared to negative 60 billion won a year earlier.

The turnaround was due in large part to reduced marketing costs, which were down by 40 billion won compared to 2019. This is raising questions among potential buyers of Yogiyo as the company focused on profitability instead of growth as opposed to its rivals, which are aggressively increasing spending to bolster their presence in the fast-growing food delivery market.

Baedal Minjok, the largest player in the market, recorded GMV of 15.6 trillion won and revenue of 1.2 trillion won last year, up 73% and 102% year-on-year respectively. However, it still had an operating loss of 11.2 billion won.

Delivery Hero earlier this year accepted the Korea Fair Trade Commission’s ruling that approved the German company’s acquisition of Woowa Brother’s Baedal Minjok on the condition that it divests from Yogiyo. The acquisition was completed last month.

“Yogiyo’s position as the second largest player in the country’s food delivery market is clearly attractive to investors,” said an official at one private equity firm in Seoul. “But the Woowa Brother deal has weakened Yogiyo’s competitive position and potential buyers will focus on that.”

The first round of bidding for the company is scheduled for May 4. Morgan Stanley is managing the sale. (Reporting by Se-hun Jo)