Samsung Securities, SDS, Samsung Card to Buy 4% Stake in Dunamu for $445 Million
Summary
- Samsung Securities, Samsung SDS and Samsung Card said they will acquire a 4.0%% stake in Dunamu held by Kakao affiliates for $445 million.
- In the deal, Dunamu's per-share price was set at about 439,250 won, implying an estimated corporate value of about 15.3 trillion won.
- The three Samsung companies said they plan to work with Dunamu in areas including digital assets, won-based stablecoins, security tokens and virtual-asset services to pursue new business opportunities.
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Samsung trio to acquire 4% of Dunamu for $445 million
Stake comes from existing shares held by Kakao affiliates
Deal aimed at creating new digital-asset business opportunities
Samsung Securities said May 28 that it, Samsung SDS and Samsung Card will acquire a combined 4.0% stake in Dunamu from Kakao affiliates.
Samsung Securities will buy 2.0%, while Samsung SDS and Samsung Card will each acquire 1.0%. The three companies will purchase a total of 1.39 million shares for 612.8 billion won, or about $445 million.
The stake will be bought from existing shareholders including Kakao Investment, Kakao Ventures, the Kakao Youth Startup Fund and the KIF-Kakao Woori Bank Technology Finance Investment Fund. The price was set at about 439,250 won a share, matching the appraisal rights price in the comprehensive share swap between Dunamu and Naver Financial. Based on that price, Dunamu is valued at about 15.3 trillion won, or roughly $11.1 billion.
The three Samsung companies said they decided to make the investment to create new business opportunities tied to the expanding digital-asset market. They cited the possibility that the scope of digital assets could widen to include won-based stablecoins, allowing exchanges to broaden their business areas.
Samsung Securities said it plans to deepen cooperation with Dunamu to expand services and explore business opportunities across digital assets, including security token issuance and distribution and virtual-asset services.
Samsung SDS plans to combine its strengths in IT services, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, security and data management with Dunamu's blockchain operating expertise. The company said that would enhance the competitiveness of its blockchain software and support future next-generation digital-finance infrastructure projects for domestic financial firms.
Samsung Card said it plans to work with Dunamu on building a payments ecosystem tied to digital assets, including support for payments using digital assets on Monimo, Samsung Financial's integrated app, if won-based stablecoins are introduced.
Noh Jung-dong, Hankyung.com reporter, dong2@hankyung.com
Korea Economic Daily
hankyung@bloomingbit.ioThe Korea Economic Daily Global is a digital media where latest news on Korean companies, industries, and financial markets.
