Naver to Additionally Invest 779.1 Bil. Won in J.Hub
Naver announced on Dec. 16 that it would delist LINE, its subsidiary in Japan, and make an additional investment of 779.1 billion won in J.Hub, a fully-owned subsidiary in Japan.
The investment is to repay borrowings. Earlier, J.Hub borrowed 2,247.9 billion won from Mizuho Bank and SMBC and Naver stood surety in August this year.
LINE and Yahoo Japan are scheduled to be combined with each other by March next year. Then, Z Holdings will be governed by A Holdings, a Naver-SoftBank joint venture, and Z Holdings will govern Yahoo and LINE as subsidiaries. Naver founder and GIO Lee Hae-jin will become the first chairman of A Holdings.
Naver’s gains on valuation from the LINE-Yahoo Japan combination are estimated at 300 billion won or more a year. Naver’s shareholding in Z Holdings is 32.6 percent.
The new corporation’s consolidated sales for this year are estimated at 1.4 trillion yen, almost 300 percent of Naver’s sales. According to securities industry sources, Yahoo’s local banking and credit card business and LINE’s financial infrastructure in Southeast Asia are expected to create synergy with PayPay and LINE Pay combined, which are the top two simple payment services in Japan.