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Yanolja’s Nasdaq IPO plan hit by Qoo10’s liquidity turmoil

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Nasdaq congratulates Yanolja’s acquisition of Israeli tech firm Go Global Travel on May 15, 2023 (Courtesy of Yanolja)

Yanolja Co., South Korea’s leading travel and accommodation booking platform operator, may delay its Nasdaq initial public offering plan as the liquidity crisis of Singapore-based marketplace Qoo10 Pte. is expected to impact the Korean firm’s key subsidiary. 

Yanolja’s travel booking and ticketing arm InterparkTriple Corp. is considering demanding Qoo10 to hand over 168 billion won ($125.6 million) worth of stake in logistics firm Qxpress Pte., investment banking sources said on Friday.

InterparkTriple signed a deal to sell a 100% stake in Interpark Commerce Corp., an e-commerce and online bookstore operator, to Qoo10 in April 2023.

Under the contract, InterparkTriple received 19 billion won in cash at the time and agreed to receive the remaining 168 billion won in installments by 2026. The Korean firm is yet to receive the remainder.

InterparkTriple collateralized Qxrpess’ stake held by Qoo10 for receiving the remainder. InterparkTriple and Qoo10 valued Qxpress at around 700 billion won for collateralization at the time.

Qxpress’ corporate value has sharply dropped amid the financial turmoil of Qoo10, two Korean subsidiaries of which filed for court receivership in July after weeks of payment delays to vendors.  

QXPRESS INVESTORS’ PLAN TO AFFECT INTERPARK

Qxpress’ financial investors include Seoul-based Crescendo Equity Partners Ltd., Corstone Asia Co., Metistone Equity Partners Co., Cactus Private Equity and Korea Development Bank Private Equity.

They invested a combined 170 billion won in the logistics firm’s preferred shares, convertible notes and exchangeable bonds from 2019 to 2021. Qxpress was valued at between 200 billion won and 300 billion won during the period.

With Qxpress’ value much lower than three years ago, the financial investors’ goal has turned to the recovery of their principal by converting the bonds into equity and selling the stake to new strategic investors, according to sources.

If the financial investors lower Qxpress value to recover their principal, it will impact InterparkTriple’s plan to receive Qxpress stake as the Korean firm has to recognize an accounting loss on the decreased value of Qxpress.

InterparkTriple sees that Qoo10 has no capabilities to pay the Korean ticketing platform 168 billion won in cash.

InterparkTriple’s financial conditions are forecast to affect its parent Yanolja’s Nasdaq IPO plan. Yanolja posted 65.2 billion won in net loss in the first half, adding to the woes over the probability of its US market debut.

By Jong-Kwan Park

pjk@hankyung.com

Jihyun Kim edited this article.

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