Nongshim Holdings announced on the 25th that it will acquire all 330,000 shares of the seasoning food and sauce manufacturer Seowoo for approximately 100 billion won.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system, Nongshim Holdings will acquire 100% equity in Seowoo for 99.999 billion won on the 1st of next month. Nongshim Holdings stated, "We aim to maximize synergy with the existing food businesses operated by the group by acquiring a corporation that manufactures soy sauce, sauces, and seasoning products."
Seowoo is a corporation that has supplied soup for Nongshim's representative product, Shin Ramyun. In addition to flavored powder products such as ramen soup, it also produces and sells sauces including soy sauce, gochujang, doenjang, and ssamjang. With a capital of 1.65 billion won, its sales last year were 136.8 billion won and its operating profit was 10.6 billion won.
Through this acquisition, Nongshim expects to further enhance the competitiveness of its core businesses of ramen and instant foods. It is anticipated that there will be benefits in securing supply stability by internalizing the key raw material, soup, thereby reducing external dependence.
Meanwhile, Seowoo is operated by a family of the maternal side of Shin Dong-won, chairman of Nongshim, who is a fifth cousin. The fifth cousin, Kim Jeong-jo, holds 18.18% equity, while Kim Chang-gyeong, who is presumed to be the son of Kim Jeong-jo, holds 60.24% equity.
Seowoo, which was classified as a subsidiary of Nongshim Group in 2021, generated about 63.2 billion won, accounting for roughly 61% of its total revenue of 108.2 billion won that year through transactions with Nongshim. After being recognized for "independent family management" by the Fair Trade Commission in 2022, it was separated from the corporate group, but it has maintained a close cooperative relationship with Nongshim. The independent family management recognition system excludes a company from a corporate group when it is recognized that the relatives or executives (independent managers) of the same person (head) manage it independently and also excludes those relatives from being regarded as related parties.