이 기사는 2021년 04월 15일 08:12 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

Valuations of South Korean fashion-tech platforms are rising as they are increasingly attracting attention as a potential target of takeover attempts from traditional retailers and tech giants that have turned their eyes to niches in the country’s highly competitive ecommerce market.

Home shopping company CJ O Shopping and fashion commerce platform Musinsa are separately considering buying online fashion platform 29CM, according to industry sources.

This comes after Shinsegae’s SSG.com and Kakao Corp announced acquisitions of W Concept and Zigzag respectively earlier this month.

29CM is operated by A+B, which online shopping mall StyleShare acquired from GS Home Shopping in 2018 for 29.4 billion won ($26.2 million).

29CM combines online fashion commerce with media content, providing customers with a shopping experience like they had with beauty magazines. It particularly focuses on video-based content, which younger generations are more familiar with than text-based content. Its wide range of offerings – which include not only women’s apparel but accessories, food and cosmetics – also distinguish the company from its rivals.

A+B is estimated to be worth more than its parent company. It turned profitable in 2020, recording 1.1 billion won in net income from a net loss of 2.2 billion won a year earlier. In contrast, StyleShare widened its net loss to 10.7 billion won in the same period.

29CM’s gross merchandise value of some 150 billion won is much smaller than that of rivals such as Zigzag, Musinsa and Ably. But its unique business model that could drive growth may attract interest from larger players seeking to differentiate their strategies in pushing back against Coupang and Naver, industry watchers said.

CJ O Shopping, which previously joined the bidding race for W Concept, has been exploring acquisition opportunities in the fashion-tech sector as it has identified a platform business as a source of future growth. But its acquisition of StyleShare is unlikely due to a high price tag.

StyleShare reportedly wants a valuation of some 300 billion won. However, CJ O Shopping is unlikely to offer more than 270 billion won that SSG.com agreed to pay for W Concept, industry watcher said.

“We are considering several options,” said an official at CJ O Shopping. “A deal is unlikely to be struck if the price is too expensive.”

Musinsa, which had also bid for W Concept, reportedly remains cautious as well about buying 29CM, considering the price tag too expensive.

“The acquisition of (29CM) is unlikely because we have set our strategic focus on golf apparel and luxury items for our global expansion,” said an official at Musinsa. (Reporting by Eun-jin Choi)