Lotte to sell 7-Eleven’s ATM unit in Korea for around $38 mn

The conglomerate plans to sell off non-core businesses and boost new growth engines such as healthcare and mobility

7-Eleven store in Korea (Courtesy of Korea Seven)

Ji-Eun Ha 1

2024-02-07 13:24:33 hazzys@hankyung.com

Retail

Lotte Group is set to sell the automated teller machine (ATM) business of Korea Seven Co., the operator of convenience store chain 7-Eleven in South Korea, for around 50 billion won ($37.7 million), according to banking sources on Wednesday.

Lotte Corp., the holding firm with a 92.3% stake in Korea Seven, has tapped Samjong KPMG as the lead manager to sell the non-core business of the group.

Under Chairman Shin Dong-bin's leadership, Lotte Group is accelerating its new growth engines in the healthcare and mobility sectors.

In an interview with the Yomiuri Shinbun in January, Chairman Shin said the group plans to sell several businesses in the future while changing its core businesses to those of biotech, metaverse, hydrogen energy and secondary battery materials.

Founded in 1988, Korea Seven has expanded through acquisitions of its smaller peers. It acquired local convenience store chain Buy the Way for 250 billion won in 2010.

In 2020, it merged Buy the Way with ATM system operator Lotte PS Net Inc. to create synergy between retail and ATM management businesses.

In March 2022, Korea Seven bought the Korean operations of Japanese convenience store chain Ministop Co. for 313.4 billion won. In the same year, it swung to the red with 4.8 billion won in operating losses and 5.5 trillion won in revenue.

Write to Ji-Eun Ha at hazzys@hankyung.com

Jihyun Kim edited this article.