Jung Yong-jin's Love for Baseball, Acquires 'SK Wyverns'

Shinsegae Acquires SK Wyverns... New Synergy Expected with Distribution Business
Vice Chairman Jung Also Active as a Pitcher in Club Activities... Full-Scale Start of Sports Marketing

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] Chung Yong-jin, Vice Chairman of Shinsegae, has kicked off sports marketing by acquiring the professional baseball team SK Wyverns. The business community is focusing on what new synergy will be created by adding the sports business through the acquisition of a baseball team to the core distribution businesses such as E-Mart, complex shopping malls, and the online shopping mall SSG.com.

On the 26th, Shinsegae Group announced that it has agreed to acquire the Incheon SK Wyverns professional baseball team from SK Telecom and is pushing for new membership registration with the KBO Korea Professional Baseball. E-Mart will acquire 100% of the SK Wyverns shares held by SKT.

The SK Wyverns will maintain their home base in Incheon, and the coaching staff, players, and front office will also be 100% retained.

It is known that Vice Chairman Chung’s strong will was greatly reflected in this acquisition of SK Wyverns. He has been dedicated to creating a new business model that can generate synergy with the distribution business more than anyone else.

Vice Chairman Chung’s past remarks, reflecting his thoughts on the future of the distribution business, are also being reexamined. In May 2015, during an internal lecture for E-Mart employees, he emphasized the development of specialized and differentiated products, saying, "In the past, large marts competed with other large marts, but now competitors include food, clothing, and electronics companies, as well as baseball stadiums or amusement parks that attract our potential customers on weekends." In March of the following year, he mentioned the Starfield under construction in Hanam City, Gyeonggi Province, saying, "In the future, competitors in the distribution industry will be theme parks or baseball stadiums."

At the Shinsegae Group level, there has been significant interest in baseball teams for some time. The group was mentioned several times as a candidate for acquiring baseball teams, including the Seoul Heroes, and was considered a strong candidate for founding a new team. Above all, Vice Chairman Chung himself is known as a baseball enthusiast, having played as a pitcher in a baseball club.

However, amid the COVID-19 situation last year, the selection and concentration of offline channels such as E-Mart became even more important, and in the growing online sector, the chase by latecomer competitors is accelerating, leading to divided opinions on whether there is sufficient investment capacity for new businesses.

Shinsegae currently also holds a 14.5% stake in the Samsung Lions. If it acquires the management rights of SK Wyverns this time, it is highly likely that the Samsung Lions stake will be disposed of. There is also an evaluation that another competitive structure could be formed through the baseball team Lotte Giants, operated by Lotte Group, which is considered a domestic ‘distribution rival.’