South Korea’s e-commerce fashion store W Concept with an annual gross merchandise volume (GMV) reaching 200 billion won ($161.8 million) is up for sale.

According to sources from the investment banking industry on Monday, IMM Private Equity (IMM PE) has recently initiated its process to pick a lead manager to sell an 80 percent of stake in W Concept.

The online clothing and fashion accessory platform was separated from SK Network in 2008 and placed under IMM PE in October 2017. The store has been expanding product lineups to cosmetics and fashion items for middle-aged and elderly people to broaden its customer base.

As of the end of last year, W Concept hosted 6,000 or more brands and had 4.7 million members. Its annual GMV, a key metric used to measure the value of an e-commerce platform, stands at 200 billion won.

The company posted a 22 percent year-over-year growth in sales to 52.6 billion won on a consolidated basis last year. But it swung to an operating loss of 4.4 billion won due to the heavy advertising and marketing expenses as well as payroll costs on increased number of employees.

Market analysts estimate the value of the 80 percent stake in W Concept to reach 300 billion won. If Musinsa, the country’s leading fashion e-commerce platform, joins the race, the competition would fiercely heat up, industry watchers said.

By Kang Woo-seok and Choi Mira

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]