LOTTE Card

Dec 7, 2022

Macquarie bids for transportation card operator Loca Mobility Kakao Pay asks for additional bidding round to join; SoCar didn't participate By Loca　Mobility's　pre-paid　card　brand　Cashbee Macquarie Asset Management participated in a bid on Dec. 6 to acquire Loca Mobility Corp., Lotte Card Co.’s subsidiary and the second-largest public transportation card operator in South Korea.  Kakao Pay Corp., the mobile payment service unit of Korean tech giant Kakao Corp., has requested an additional bidding round that it will join.   Private equity firm MBK Partners, the largest shareholder of Lotte Card, and JP Morgan, the lead manager of the sale, held the bid on Tuesday to divest a 100% stake in Loca Mobility. Kakao Pay, regarded as a potential buyer , requested an additional bid as it hadn’t fully prepared for documentation needed this time. Car-sharing platform SoCar Inc., which was expected to join the bid, didn’t participate.    Loca Mobility manufactures pre-paid transportation cards and payment terminals that can be used in various regions in Korea -- Incheon city, Gyeonggi, Gangwon, Gyeongsang and Jeolla provinces. The firm operates transportation card brand Cashbee, which makes up 37% of the country’s public transportation card market, following TMoney Co., which tops the market with a 60% share. Cashbee is used for payment at convenience stores, as well as Lotte Group’s fast-food franchise and café affiliates like Lotteria and Angel-in-us. A total of 105,268 stores across Korea accept the use of the pre-paid card as of end-September. Loca Mobility also builds systems for transportation card transaction and fee settlement. Additionally, it provides real-time information on bus operation and arrival times. The transportation card operator, which suffered from a decline in the number of passengers amid COVID-19, is regaining profits. As of end-September, it posted 147.3 billion won ($111.5 million) and 14.7 billion won in cumulative revenue and net profit on a consolidated basis. Macquarie is said to value Loca Mobility’s high profitability and stability as the transportation card operator is backed by some local government and banks. The card operator's subsidiary Mybi Corp. has Kookmin Bank, Busan Bank and Kwangju Broadcasting Corp. as shareholders. Hanpaysys Co., which Mybi has a controlling stake in, has Gwangju city and Kwangju Bank as shareholders. Write to Dong-Hun Lee at leedh@hankyung.com Jihyun Kim edited this article. 3 Min read 1 Min read 2 Min read 4 Min read