Korea Gold Exchange put up for sale
The Korea Gold Exchange and the Korea Gold Exchange Digital Asset (KORDA), trading platforms for precious metals, have been put up for sale. Their owners, SG Private Equity and LX Investment, have initiated the process to find new owners.
According to the investment banking industry, NH Investment & Securities, the lead manager of the sale deal, plans to distribute a letter to potential buyers this week, in order to begin a preliminary demand survey.
One hundred percent of the common shares of both the gold exchange and the digital trading platform are to be sold during the sale process. Some 67.2 percent of the shares of the two entities are held by a special purpose company (SPC) set up by SG Private Equity and LX Investment in 2018, while the rest of the shares are each held by two individuals.
Founded in 2005, the Korea Gold Exchange is a company that deals with distributing and selling various precious metals, such as gold, silver and palladium, acquired from refining companies. The firm is also engaged in manufacturing and selling jewelry items; 94 percent of the firm's revenue comes from the sale of gold products and commodities.
The company posted an annual revenue of 1.85 trillion won ($1.35 billion) and an operating profit of 11 billion won last year. Based on economies of scale, it has maintained its top tanking in the domestic gold distribution business during the past decade.
Established in 2019, the Korea Gold Exchange Digital Asset (KORDA) is a spin-off company of the Korea Gold Exchange's business-to-consumer (B2C) business. The digital trading and selling platform of precious metals posted an annual revenue of 161 billion won in 2022.
The digital firm proactively adopted the latest IT technologies, such as fragmented investment and blockchain technology, into its platform. The company is evaluated to have contributed to making transactions involving precious metals more transparent, something that at one time, was largely conducted under the table.
Source: https://www.koreatimes.co.kr