Oasis Market Passes IPO Preliminary Review... Where Will the E-commerce 'First Listing' Go?

[Asia Economy Reporter Son Seon-hee] Oasis, a company operating a fresh food dawn delivery platform, has passed the preliminary review for listing. Having cleared the first hurdle, it is accelerating preparations for listing next year. Attention is focused on who will claim the title of the 'first listed company' in the related e-commerce industry, as it overlaps in business areas with Kurly, which has already passed the review and is preparing for listing.

According to the industry on the 30th, Oasis received approval for the preliminary review for listing on the KOSDAQ market of the Korea Exchange the day before. It has been about four months since submitting the preliminary review application to the exchange in September.

Founded in 2011, Oasis initially distributed agricultural products mainly through offline stores and entered the dawn delivery market in 2018. Last year, it recorded annual sales of 356.9 billion KRW, operating profit of 5.7 billion KRW, and net profit of 4.4 billion KRW. The market estimates Oasis Market's corporate value to reach up to 1.5 trillion KRW. Being the only 'profitable company' in the dawn delivery industry is considered an advantage.

Oasis has selected NH Investment & Securities and Korea Investment & Securities as lead managers and is proceeding with listing preparations. According to the exchange, the expected public offering amount is between 258.5 billion and 301.6 billion KRW, with the expected issue price per share ranging from 39,600 to 46,200 KRW. The par value per share is 100 KRW.

With Oasis passing the preliminary review, Kurly, which operates a similar business, is naturally drawing attention as well. Kurly, the company operating the dawn delivery platform Market Kurly, passed the review at the end of August but has not yet finalized its IPO schedule even after four months. Typically, a listing must be completed within six months after passing the preliminary review, and if the deadline is missed, the review process must be repeated. Therefore, Kurly must complete its listing process by February next year.

However, the recent rapid freeze of the IPO market due to interest rate hikes and economic recession is a negative factor. In particular, market evaluations of growth stocks such as IT and platform companies have become more stringent. While there were initially rosy forecasts that Kurly's valuation would reach 4 trillion KRW, recent market views suggest it will be limited to the 1 trillion KRW range.