April 17, 2024

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South Korea’s catering and food service firm CJ Foodville said on April 30 that it has decided to sell 45 percent stake in coffeehouse franchise A Twosome Place for 202.5 billion won ($173.3 million) to Hong Kong-based private equity firm Anchor Equity Partners.

The subsidiary of Korean food-to-entertainment conglomerate CJ Group will hand over 50,625 shares on June 30 to Anchor Equity Partners in exchange for cash, according to its financial disclosure.

Once the transaction closes, Anchor’s ownership of A Twosome Place will soar to 85 percent. CJ Foodville currently owns 60 percent.

CJ Foodville said the sell-off is meant to improve its balance sheet enhance the value of other brands.

This come amid CJ Foodville’s snowballing loss. It logged a net loss of 128.3 billion won in 2018, up fourfold on-year, although its operating profit jumped over 11-fold to 43.4 billion won in 2018

A Twosome Place was spun off from CJ Foodville in February 2018. After selling 32.5 percent stake to Anchor Equity Partners, the company raised 62.5 million won capital by issuing new shares to raise the Hong Kong firm’s ownership.

The second-largest coffeehouse chain operator logged 274.3 billion won revenue and 29.2 billion won operating profit in the first quarter this year.

By Son Ji-hyoung (consnow@heraldcorp.com)