Gmarket applies for Nasdaq listing

Gmarket, one of the major Internet shopping mall operators in Korea, has applied for a Nasdaq initial public offering, the company said yesterday. The headquarters in Seoul said that the company will begin an investor road show later this month and that it expects the initial public offering to range between $100 million and $150 million. Following Gmarket’s Nasdaq IPO application, U.S. Internet company Yahoo! announced that it will buy a 10-percent stake in the online retailer. In a statement, Yahoo! said that it would buy the stake from the U.S. venture capital firm Oak Investment Partners, which is Gmarket’s second-largest shareholder, holding a 29-percent stake. The largest shareholder is Interpark Corp., another major Internet shopping mall operator in Korea. “We look forward to working with Gmarket to leverage their e-commerce expertise to further expand Yahoo!’s leading position in commerce in Asia,” Yahoo! chief operating officer Dan Rosensweig said in the statement. Gmarket was established in March 2000, and provides an online marketplace for buyers and sellers. Last year, the company achieved net profits of 4.3 billion won ($4.56 million) on sales of 71.3 billion won based on 1.8 trillion won’s worth of online trading. by Wohn Dong-hee