이 기사는 2022년 03월 24일 07:36 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

Hyundai Department Store Group has agreed to acquire ecommerce mattress company Zinus Inc, seeking to create synergies in online retail and expand across geographies.

The South Korean department store chain announced Tuesday that it would buy a controlling 30% stake in Zinus held by the mattress firm’s founder and chairman, Lee Youn-jae, for 774.7 billion won ($638.9 million). It will also invest 120 billion won in new shares in the company, which will use the proceeds to expand its production facility in Indonesia and improve its balance sheet.



Hyundai Department Store’s deal for Zinus is its biggest acquisition ever since 2012, when it purchased apparel maker Handsome Corp for 420 billion won.

The total size of the deal, close to 900 billion won including the 120 billion won capital injection, even exceeds the department store chain’s liquidity reserves. At the end of 2021 on a consolidated basis, it had 46.6 billion won in cash and cash equivalents, 10 billion won in short-term investments and 663 billion won in financial assets measured at fair value through profit and loss.

The deal is seen as part of a strategy to achieve the retail group’s Vision 2030, which aims to grow the conglomerate’s overall revenue to 40 trillion won by 2030 through expansion into new markets and geographies. The initiative was announced in January 2021 in commemoration of the group's 50 years in business.

The acquisition of Zinus is expected to create synergies with the conglomerate’s furniture and interior units, such as Hyundai Livart Furniture and Hyundai Living & Culture, in particular. The retail group plans to increase revenue from this business to over 5 trillion won by 2030, from 2.5 trillion won in 2021.

Zinus, whose shares are publicly traded on Kospi, reported consolidated revenue of 1.12 trillion won in 2021, with more than half of its revenue coming from its mattress business. By region, the US market accounted for about 90% of the company’s total revenue, and 80% of its sales were made through online channels such as Amazon.

Zinus’ global customer base and online sales channels are expected to help the retail group’s affiliates enhance their ecommerce capability and expand into new geographies. “With the Zinus acquisition, Hyundai Department Store Group will be able to expand its business portfolio and create synergies with its furniture business,” an industry insider said.

Under Hyundai Department Store’s ownership, Zinus plans to diversify its markets beyond the US to expand into Europe, South America and Japan. It will also work with the group’s retail affiliates to drive its expansion in the domestic market, with a mid-to-long term goal of entering the fast-growing sleep market.

“We are exploring opportunities to acquire sleep-tech companies or collaborate with them,” an official at Hyundai Department Store Group said. (Reporting by Hyo-beom Lee)