This article was published on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 4:31 p.m. Oct. 14, 2025.
Kakao Games will sell its golf subsidiary Kakao VX to affiliate Kakao Investment. After Murex Partners, which had emerged as the buyer, failed to secure acquisition financing and the transaction collapsed, the company decided to transfer it to a Kakao Investment subsidiary through an intra-group transaction.
Industry sources say Kakao is likely to renew efforts to sell control of Kakao Games in the future. Because it has now disposed of noncore subsidiary Kakao VX and slimmed down, analysts say it will be less burdensome to find a new buyer.
According to investment bank sources, Kakao Games plans to sell all of its equity in Kakao VX to IVG, a subsidiary of Kakao Investment, on the 15th for 254.9 billion won.
Originally Kakao Games held a 65.2% stake in Kakao VX. Ahead of this sale, on the 13th it bought the remaining shares held by financial investors for 162.3 billion won, raising its ownership to 100%.
The FIs exiting Kakao VX this time — Stonebridge Capital, Q Capital Partners, Factum PE and others — will invest 108.5 billion won in Kakao Games through a third-party allotment paid-in capital increase. For Kakao Games, selling noncore business Kakao VX to an affiliate improves its financial structure while issuing new shares brings in more than 100 billion won in additional cash.
Until now, the IB industry has expected Kakao to ultimately seek to sell control of Kakao Games. It was confirmed that multiple strategic investors and financial investors had pursued acquisition of Kakao Games. The market even mentioned NCSOFT as a potential buyer.
Industry players say Kakao will likely move toward selling Kakao Games. An IB official familiar with internal matters said, "Kakao has been considering growing its AI business across the company and selling off the rest," adding, "Now that Kakao Games has removed the weight of Kakao VX, the burden of selling the core company has significantly decreased."
In fact, there has been analysis since last year that Kakao Games was pursuing a "divisional sale," orderly disposing of held assets. In September last year it sold noncore subsidiary Sena Technologies to Keystone Partners, and in April this year it sold Neptune to KRAFTON.
In the case of Kakao VX, assessments suggested that the Singal golf course grew to occupy a large share of the overall business, making it inconsistent with Kakao Games' direction. Since 2021 Kakao VX has pushed to build a golf course in Giheung, Yongin, Gyeonggi. It planned construction on 1,112,514 square meters (about 330,000 pyeong) with 18 holes and had budgeted 150 billion won for the project. Of that, it borrowed 60 billion won from parent Kakao Games, and Kakao Investment's subsidiaries plan to complete the construction.
However, because Kakao Games has attracted more than 100 billion won in new investment from existing FIs this time, some say there is less immediate need to hasten a sale. An IB industry source said, "It looks likely they will use the newly invested funds to build strength and raise their value, then slowly resume sale efforts."