Qxpress will leave ailing Qoo10, seek new owner

Qoo10's shipping subsidiary Qxpress plans to find a new owner to minimize spillover damages from the group's liquidity crisis. Financial institutions will convert bonds into shares and aim to normalize operations before finding a new investor.

Global logistics company Qxpress is a subsidiary of the Singapore-based Qoo10. [QXPRESS]

Qoo10’s shipping subsidiary Qxpress will reportedly leave the Singapore based Qoo10 and find a new owner in an effort to minimize spillover damages from the group's liquidity crisis.

Multiple financial institutions, including private equity funds, are set to convert their bonds into shares of the company, diluting Qoo10 CEO Ku Young-bae's and the Qoo10 group’s controlling shares, Yonhap reported Tuesday. Qoo10 currently owns 66 percent of Qxpress while Ku owns 29 percent. Qxpress’s investors include Crescendo Equity Partners, Corstone Asia, Metistone Equity Partners, Korea Development Bank Private Equity and Cactus Private Equity. The invested amount is around 170 billion won ($127 million), according to the Korea Economic Daily.

The financial institutions plan to convert their exchangeable and convertible bonds into common shares to take control from Qoo10 by the end of August at the earliest. Their combined stock would make up more than 50 percent of shares. The investors then reportedly plan to normalize the business’s operations before finding a new strategic investor, with plans to change the company’s name.

Qxpress was previously weighing a U.S. initial public offering on Nasdaq, with Qoo10’s aggressive acquisitions of multiple e-commerce platforms, including the cash-strapped TMON, WeMakePrice and Interpark Commerce, aiming to boost the asset size of the group ahead of the listing. The company had worked toward going public in the second half of 2024 and had chosen Goldman Sachs as its financial adviser.

The Nasdaq listing, however, was nixed by vote at a recent board meeting, Yonhap reported, citing industry insiders. Expenses will instead be used to stabilize operations.

Former Qxpress Chief Financial Officer Mark Lee replaced Ku as CEO of the logistics company on July 26. Qxpress had then said in a news release that “Qoo10 subsidiaries only made up 10 percent of all cross-border shipping” for the logistics company, indicating a high possibility that it would operate as an independent entity outside of the Qoo10 group. Around 30 percent of the firm’s revenue came from shipping for the Qoo10 group, whose main business is global business-to-business shipping.

BY KIM JU-YEON [kim.juyeon2@joongang.co.kr]