Korea Extends Delivery Hero-Woowa Brothers’ Deal Review

The result of the Korea Fair Trade Commission’s (KFTC) review of Delivery Hero’s US$4 billion deal to acquire Woowa Brothers could take as long as a year, reported The Korea Times. 

“We have 120 days to review the merger and if we think we have not looked through enough data, we can request more time. I think we’ll need more time for this deal. It will take longer,” a KFTC official said. 

Delivery Hero applied for a merger review from the antitrust regulator on December 31, last year. Considering the 120-day deadline the KFTC’s decision was expected on April 28. Previously, the government took a little over four months to review and approve the merger of eBay Korea and G-Market.

However, the KFTC official said Delivery Hero and Woowa Brother’s M&A deal needs a more comprehensive review as it could potentially limit healthy competition in the online food delivery service market. 

Currently, Woowa Brothers’ food delivery application Baedal Minjok (Baemin) takes up 55.7% of the market share. If Delivery Hero takes over Baemin, it will own almost 100% of the market share as it already owns No.2 player Yogiyo and No.3 player Baedaltong that comprise 33.5% and 10.8%, respectively.

Full Content: Korea Times

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