Securing Funds to Acquire SK Broadband Shares
SK Telecom is selling approximately 10.81 million shares of Kakao. This move is seen as an effort to secure funds for acquiring shares in SK Broadband.
On the 25th, SK Telecom announced its decision to sell all its Kakao shares, worth approximately 413.3 billion KRW, through a block deal. The total number of shares being sold is 10,818,510.
The sale is aimed at securing funds to make SK Broadband a wholly-owned subsidiary. Last November, SK Telecom signed a stock purchase agreement to acquire a 16.75% stake in SK Broadband held by the Taekwang Group. Around the same time, it also acquired an 8.01% stake from the Mirae Asset Group.
SK Telecom plans to evaluate these shares at 11,511 KRW per share and complete the purchase by next month for a total of 1.15 trillion KRW. The company is also considering investing the funds from this share sale into potential future growth areas, such as artificial intelligence (AI).
Previously, in October 2019, SK Telecom and Kakao exchanged shares worth 300 billion KRW and established a strategic partnership. At that time, the two companies announced cooperation across four key areas: telecommunications, commerce, digital content, and future information and communication technology (ICT).
SK Telecom plans to maintain its collaboration with Kakao even after this share sale.