이 기사는 2022년 04월 27일 07시40분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

Kakao Corp is looking for a buyer for Wyatt, which operates its hair-care reservation service Kakao Hair Shop, after lowering the price tag by almost two-thirds to sell it off quickly ahead of planned initial public offerings of its major subsidiaries.

“Kakao is sounding out potential buyers for Wyatt with a price tag of the 100 billion won ($80 million) range,” a source familiar with the matter said. “It obviously wants to exit the business without further delay.”

Last year, the South Korean tech giant received intense criticism from the public and politicians that the aggressive expansion of its platforms squeezed small business owners. In response, Kakao Corp vowed to pursue shared growth and sell off its non-core assets to reduce the number of affiliates under its wing from 134 to below 100.

Kakao Corp had initially proposed a price tag of 300 billion won for Wyatt because the unit raised 48 billion won in August last year at that valuation. However, an absence of synergies with Kakao’s platforms after sale substantially reduced its attractiveness to potential buyers.

Wyatt also recorded a net loss of 30 billion won in 2021, an almost threefold increase from a 10.3 billion won loss in the previous year. The jump in net loss was largely due to an impairment of the entire goodwill associated with hair-care brand Dr. ForHair, which was merged into Wyatt in 2020.

Kakao is looking to expediate the sale, apparently in order to shy away from scrutiny of its sprawling business expansion – especially ahead of planned IPOs of its major subsidiaries such as Kakao Mobility and Kakao Entertainment.

However, a firesale of Wyatt would unavoidably cause losses to investors who invested in the unit last year and could be at issue in the sale process, industry watchers said. (Reporting by Se-hun Jo)