Retail News CRM

Tag: E-Land group

  • E-Land refutes credit downgrade

    E-Land refutes credit downgrade

    E-Land Group, headed by Chairman Park Sung-su, is fiercely refuting the Korea Investors Service’s latest credit downgrade of its holding firm, E-Land World, vowing to file a lawsuit against the ratings agency affiliated with the U.S.-based Moody’s.

    Officials at the mid-tier fashion-and-retail business group argued that the ratings agency’s assessment was flawed, calling on the company to retract its decision to cut the credit worthiness of E-Land World, which has a controlling stake in E-Land Retail and E-Land Park.

    E-Land Retail owns Kim’s Club and other retail outlets, while E-Land Park operates hotels, restaurants and other leisure-related businesses.

    On Monday, the Korea Investors Service lowered E-Land World’s credit ratings by one notch to BBB- from BBB, citing its deteriorating financial health as a result of snowballing debt. The agency maintained its negative outlook for the holding firm.

    “We see no improvement for E-Land Group’s financial conditions even though it has implemented self-rescue measures,” a company analyst said. “With E-Land’s struggling retail and fashion businesses, it would be difficult for the company to generate an operating profit. It is uncertain as to whether E-Land would be able to improve its financial health by executing self-rescue plans.”

    E-Land officials were furious over the credit downgrade, pledging to take the ratings agency to court.

    “It is absurd for the Korea Investors Service to cut the credit ratings for E-Land World when it has successfully been improving its financial soundness over the past few months,” an E-Land Group spokesman said. “The agency assessed the holding firm based on the data available in early September. But it should have included what happened in the fourth quarter of 2016. This is what they did wrong.”

    In late September, E-Land, sold its casual clothing brand, Teenie Weenie, to Chinese fashion brand, V-GRASS, for 1 trillion won ($900 million). Teenie Weenie has about 1,200 stores in major department stores and shopping malls in China.

    The group, which has been desperate to raise cash over the past year, has also sold real estate and plans to list the shares of E-Land Retail in the first half of this year.

    “We believe that the Korea Investors Service has failed to reflect a series of self-rescue moves in its credit assessment of E-Land World. This is just irrational,” the spokesman said. “We will file a lawsuit against the agency to correct its irresponsible behavior.”

    Lees ook:

  • E-Land Group sells clothing brand to China

    E-Land Group sells clothing brand to China

    To raise funds to cut debt, South Korean apparel retailer E-Land Group is selling a youth clothing brand to China’s V-Grass Fashion Co for nearly US$900 million.

    South Korea’s largest apparel retailer, E-Land Group says it expects to close the sale of its Teenie Weenie business for around 1 trillion won by year-end. It says the sale will help cut its debt-to-capital ratio by about a third.

    Led by the success of cosmetics firms, demand in China is surging for Korean products, as well as Korean TV dramas and K-pop music.

    origin_0e7d699c9db0be3878895dcc837751c1

    Teenie Weenie has the strength of both being a Korean firm with a Chinese partner, says VP Lee Gyu-Jin. Launched in China in 2004, it already has a strong profile for its casual clothing. It has 1400 department store and other outlets in China with annual revenue of 420 billion won.

    V-Grass is a Shanghai-listed women’s apparel company with a market value of about $685
    million and is little known outside China. Earlier this year it said it planned to raise up to 1.35 billion yuan ($202 million) in a private share placement “to fund projects”.

    Earlier, E-Land Group dropped a plan to sell its Kim’s Club hypermarket chain to US private equity fund KKR, citing differences over price.

  • E-Land Group to open large shopping mall in China

    E-Land Group to open large shopping mall in China

    South Korean retail giant E-Land Group said Monday that it plans to open its first shopping mall in mainland China later this year in a joint venture as part of its strategy to tap deeper into the world’s biggest market.

    E-Land Group and Malaysia-based Parkson Group have agreed to establish a joint venture and open “Parkson-New Core Mall” in Shanghai in November.

    The South Korean company said it will be in charge of management of the joint venture, with a 51-percent share.

    Parkson Group is one of the largest department store operators in the Asian region, with 127 stores in China, Malaysia and Indonesia.

    It is the first time for the South Korean retailer to run a large multiplex shopping mall in China, while E-Land now operates around 7,300 apparel stores in the neighboring country.

    E-Land said the Parkson-New Core Mall will house its own fashion, houseware, shoes and accessory brands, as well as American and European luxury goods.

    “China’s retail industry has already reached a saturation point,” said an official from E-Land Group. “We will introduce a new type of retail store in the market.”

    Rival retailers including Lotte Group and Shinsegae have already entered the Chinese market but failed to produce outstanding results due to fierce competition.