[Asia Economy Reporter Bu Aeri] Naver announced on the 16th that it will additionally acquire 7.43 million shares of its Japanese subsidiary Naver J-Hub for 779.1 billion KRW.
Naver's Japanese subsidiary Line and SoftBank's subsidiary Z Holdings (operator of Yahoo Japan) have been pursuing a management integration since November last year.
The joint venture between Naver and SoftBank is named A Holdings, which is set to launch in March next year. Z Holdings will be a subsidiary of A Holdings, with Line and Yahoo Japan as its subsidiaries. Lee Hae-jin, the founder of Naver and Global Investment Officer (GIO), will serve as the inaugural chairman of A Holdings.
Naver stated, "J-Hub intends to acquire Line's shares through methods such as a public tender offer as part of the management integration process and has procured loans from financial institutions," adding, "The decision for a paid-in capital increase is aimed at securing funds to repay the loans procured by J-Hub from financial institutions."
Line will be delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange on the 29th. This comes after about 4 years and 4 months since its listing in July 2016.
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