Acquired a 70% stake in Interpark for 294 billion won
“Attacking Overseas Travel Demand”
Photo = Yanolja
Interpark, the No. 1 travel and performance reservation platform in Korea by Yanolja, a lodging platform company(7,770 +8.37%)acquired the business unit of This is the result of Yanolja, which has attracted 2 trillion won in investment from Vision Fund II, a venture capital (VC) led by Sohn Jeong-eui, chairman of SoftBank Group in Japan, and started M&A to target the overseas travel market.
Yanolja announced on the 14th that it had signed a memorandum of understanding to acquire a 70% stake in Interpark’s business divisions such as travel, performances, shopping, and books for 294 billion won.
Photo = Yanolja
Yanolja presented a blueprint for cooperation with Interpark to strengthen and upgrade the competitiveness of the leisure industry at home and abroad through this acquisition. Arnolza explained that Interpark was chosen as a bridgehead for global business expansion, including preemptive responses to changes in the overseas travel market in the era of ‘post-corona’.
Through this acquisition, Yanolja expected to strengthen competitiveness in terms of customer usability, such as interconnection of software as a service (SaaS) that provides software through crowds with overseas travel platforms.
Yanolja said, “As a domestic company, it is meaningful to actively target the overseas travel market, which is being eroded by overseas platform companies.” He emphasized, “We have a growth engine that can take a step forward in the global travel market as well as preemptively respond to overseas travel demand.”
Interpark designed the sale structure by physically splitting the business divisions, such as travel, tickets, and books, to be sold, and then selling the stake in the company. The sale of Interpark seemed to be difficult from the beginning due to the deterioration of profitability of its main business division, but the acquisition was made through Yanolja’s ‘bet’, who did not participate in the preliminary bidding.
Accommodation platform targeting demand for ‘revenge travel’
The photo shows the founder, Lee Su-jin, general representative of Yanolja. Photo = Hankyung DB
Yanolja Hana Tour, the No. 1 travel industry(87,200 +0.81%)Following the partnership with , the business division of Interpark, Korea’s No. 1 travel and performance reservation platform, was also embraced. It looks like they are competing to preempt the demand for ‘retaliatory travel’, which is expected to recover after being suppressed by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
Yanolja signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Hana Tour last month for a strategic alliance. The two companies are reviewing plans to sell Hana Tour’s travel products exclusively on the Yanolja platform and joint investment.
‘How are you here’, the second-largest accommodation platform, also took over a stake in a travel agency’s online tour.
On the 7th, he explained, “We have secured about 20% of the stake in the online tour and a call option (stock purchase right) for additional investment in the future.” .
Photo = Hankyung DB
This is because, as the number of people vaccinated against COVID-19 increases, the travel industry is recovering vitality by aiming for a ‘travel bubble (travel voucher) effect’ between countries that have been vaccinated. It is evaluated that the live ammunition-rich accommodation platform has joined hands with travel agencies to expand its business area, which was centered on domestic travel and accommodation, overseas.
An industry official said, “The accommodation platform has live ammunition, artificial intelligence (AI) technology, and big data. It can be seen as a movement,” he said.
Oh Jung-min, reporter at Hankyung.com blooming@hankyung.com
