Emart accelerates restructuring with tender offer for Shinsegae Food

Emart CI

Emart will launch a tender offer to acquire the remaining shares of its subsidiary Shinsegae Food, a move that would lead to the company’s delisting as part of a groupwide business restructuring by Shinsegae Group.

According to industry sources on Sunday, Emart will conduct a 22-day tender offer from Dec. 15 through Jan. 5 to purchase 37.89 percent of Shinsegae Food shares it does not already own. The final settlement date is Jan. 7. The offer price is set at 48,120 won ($32.7) per share, a 20 percent premium to the stock’s closing price of 40,100 won on Friday. The total transaction value amounts to 70.6 billion won, with Shinhan Securities acting as the lead manager.

Emart is currently the largest shareholder of Shinsegae Food, holding 1.82 million shares, or 46.87 percent. Once Emart completes a block deal to acquire 332,910 shares held by Josun Hotels & Resorts, its stake will rise to 55.47 percent as of Monday.

If the tender offer is completed in full, Emart’s ownership of Shinsegae Food will increase to 93.36 percent. The company said it aims to acquire all outstanding shares through the tender offer and, after making Shinsegae Food a wholly owned subsidiary, proceed with delisting in accordance with applicable regulations. Emart added that it will purchase all shares tendered, regardless of the final participation rate.

The move is widely seen as part of broader efforts to streamline operations across Emart affiliates. As the holding company for Shinsegae Group’s distribution and retail businesses, Emart has recently accelerated restructuring centered on Shinsegae E&C and Shinsegae Food.

Earlier this month, Shinsegae Food sold its food service business unit to Gourmet de Galleria, a subsidiary of Ourhome, for 120 billion won. Emart had also pursued the delisting of Shinsegae E&C through a tender offer earlier this year.