South Korea’s Tmon and WEMAKEPRICE’s parent company, Singapore Qoo10, have been ordered liquidated by a local court.
According to the Singapore daily Straits Times on Wednesday, the local high court ordered QOO10, an e-commerce platform in financial difficulties, to liquidate itself, and nominated AAG, a financial advisory agency, as a liquidator. The liquidator will temporarily take over QOO10’s management rights to control its assets and conduct debt restructuring negotiations.
The decision came in response to a request by the Korean Culture Promotion Agency (Culture Land), the issuer of the Korean culture gift certificate, for liquidation of the debt worth 76 billion won (approx. The Straits Times reported that the agency told the court that Q0010 had failed to pay 5.8 billion won (approx. 6 creditors including 21st Century Century Century Century Healthcare told the Singapore High Court their support for QOO10 liquidation. Some creditors asked for the suspension of the liquidation hearing due to additional review of documents, but Chua Benche, a lawyer at Raja & Tan, a Singapore law firm that is in charge of promoting Korean culture, said, “The debt-ridden company is still boldly running the trading platform. We need to protect the public through prompt liquidation.”
The local court ruled that QOO10 was insolvent and ruled in favor of the Korean culture promotion. QOO10 can appeal the liquidation order, but the liquidation process will proceed until the result of the appeal is reached.
QOO10 was founded in Singapore in 2010 by CEO Koo Young-bae, who founded Gmarket, Korea’s first-generation e-commerce company. It once held a 95 percent share in Singapore’s market. Since last year, the company has increased its power by acquiring domestic commerce such as Timep, Interpark, and AK Mall. However, the group has virtually stopped due to the untidiness of Timep in Korea worth 1.279 trillion won (1.1 billion U.S. dollars) in July.
South Korean prosecutors believe that QOO10 has pushed for the acquisition of the global platform “Wish” led by CEO Koo, a key suspect in the TMON and WEMAKEPRICE scandal, and has drawn up TMON and WEMAKEPRICE funds at will, which has made the company’s financial situation worse, leading to an undecided situation.
JENNIFER KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
