[Consumerwide - HueSoung Jun Reporter / Yohan Bok Reporter] The labour union of Homeplus gathered to appeal to dismiss the possible decision, which is a disposal of Homeplus to Alibaba, the parent company of Ali Express. What would be the clear reason behind this protest?
In the morning of May 23, the Homeplus labour union gathered in front of the Gangseo branch of Homeplus in Seoul, where the headquarters of Homeplus are located, to appeal to MBKPartners, a private equity fund that owns 100% of Homeplus's market share (total addressable market), to stop closing the Homeplus branches in local areas.
On that day, the members of the labour union requested to MBKParneters to stop closing the Homeplus stores while also mentioning the CEO of Homeplus, Jo Juhyun, for taking responsibility as a top leader for closing Anyang and Seo-Dajeon branches. Amongst their picket lines, this made me to guess about whether Homeplus is really giving up on holding their market share by fully passing onto Alibaba, the parent company of Ali Express. That says, "Homeplus will completely disappear when it is sold to Ali Express. Thus, we urge you to stop the decision of handing it over to Ali Express." One of the members of the Homeplus labour union I met in the very action of protest said, "People have been mentioning that Ali Express is currently trying to buy the 100% market share of Homeplus during the store manager's meeting. Not that I have heard directly. I was worried, so I came out to speak up for any possibility of our stores being sold to Ali Express."
But then, a person from Homeplus, whom I also met on the same day, said there is no evidence for this news. Prior to this event, Ali Express has been claiming there is nothing that's been confirmed in the media. I have requested Homeplus, but they too have not responded regarding the issue. A person from Homeplus responded regarding the protest Homeplus labour's union that was held on that day. "This protest is to stand against the closing of the stores, and they seem to be referring to a media report about Ali Express, which has been released recently. Homeplus has been striving to overcome the difficulties while securing competitiveness in the industry by taking a number of steps, such as closing branches with repetitive deficit records, changing to the mega food market, and investing in the delivery infrastructure. So far, Homeplus is doing pretty well, reflecting our continuous sales growth for the last 19 months. We will continually grow as a beloved business by consumers in Korea by immediately responding to the contemporary trend."
On the other hand, MBKPartners took over Homeplus from Tesco in 2015 by 7.2 trillion won, and Homeplus is almost approaching a decade by next year (2025) since their first investment. Thus, some estimate that Homeplus will be sold some time soon.
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