Pursuing Corporate Acquisitions to Strengthen Untact Business Portfolio
[Asia Economy Reporter Hyungsoo Park] Content business company BrainContents has successfully raised 10 billion KRW in investment. It plans to pursue additional mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to secure growth momentum and strengthen corporate competitiveness.
BrainContents announced on the 23rd that it raised a total of 10 billion KRW in investment from institutional investors, including Korea Development Bank Capital, and individual investors. It decided to issue convertible bonds. The payment date is set for the 30th. The funds secured through the convertible bonds will be used as M&A capital to strengthen untact business.
For several years, BrainContents has expanded its business through corporate acquisitions and new ventures. Since 2014, it acquired the domestic No.1 tax refund company Global Tax Free and the online cosmetics brand Swanicoco. This year, to diversify its business and secure future competitiveness, it acquired the bio-listed company Mediphron Divity. At the time of acquisition, Mediphron's market capitalization was about 55 billion KRW, which has now exceeded 140 billion KRW.
A BrainContents official said, "Having experienced opportunities amid crises such as the IMF foreign exchange crisis and the global financial crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic can be a crisis, but depending on how it is utilized, it can also become an opportunity."
He added, "Despite difficulties due to COVID-19, we successfully completed the investment attraction and will strengthen corporate competitiveness by acquiring equity or management rights in companies in the untact (non-face-to-face) sector, our core business, in preparation for the post-COVID era."
As a content business company, BrainContents has steadily grown by strengthening its untact portfolio business. Currently, it has about 10 subsidiaries, including the largest lottery portal site in Korea, the martial arts and action webtoon platform FingerStory, the online natural cosmetics shopping mall Swanicoco, Korea’s largest NMS security solution NetCruise, the No.1 tax refund company Global Tax Free, and bio new drug developer Mediphron.
NetCruise, a solution developer in the IT management field, is expected to benefit from the "Korean New Deal" policy. The government will announce a comprehensive plan for the Korean New Deal in July to respond to the post-COVID era. The core axis of the Korean New Deal, the "Digital New Deal," focuses on ▲building big data platforms ▲opening public data ▲transitioning national networks to 5G ▲5G and AI convergence ▲and nurturing AI and software talent. If government investment in national infrastructure (SOC) is made through the expansion of the public sector procurement market, the demand for collection, storage, and analysis of various system security logs will increase, directly benefiting NetCruise.
Jongwook Moon, CEO of BrainContents, said, "As we experience the COVID-19 pandemic, high-intensity social distancing has normalized non-face-to-face consumption and lifestyles such as telecommuting, online shopping, remote education, and video conferencing, so demand for non-face-to-face services will continue to increase."
He added, "Through investment attraction, we will actively pursue M&A if there are companies, domestic or overseas, directly related to untact business or that can create synergy."
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