Shinsegae Group's e-commerce platform SSG.com will be split into two companies. This is interpreted as the formal start of preparatory work to separate the E-Mart group under Jeong Yong-jin (Chairman) and the (Shinsegae) Co., Ltd. group under Jeong Yu-gyeong (Chairman).
SSG.com held a board meeting on the 27th and approved plans for personnel division of its lifestyle business segment. It plans to hold an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders by the end of October to finalize approval of this plan, with a separate legal entity scheduled to launch on December 1.
Once the split is completed, the surviving company will be renamed SSG.com, and the newly established company will be called Shinsegae Mall. SSG.com will focus on strengthening its competitiveness in grocery (food) businesses where E-Mart holds strengths, while Shinsegae Mall will concentrate on selling fashion, beauty, and lifestyle products centered around department stores. However, according to the company, Shinsegae Mall will remain linked within SSG.com even after the corporate split.
Industry observers interpret this decision as part of the Shinsegae Group's owner siblings' series of group separation efforts. SSG.com traces its origins to E-Mart Mall, which was established in 2019 through a merger that absorbed Shinsegae Mall after E-Mart had physically separated its online shopping mall business. The strategy aimed to secure market share in the e-commerce sector by combining high-competitiveness products from both E-Mart and Shinsegae Department Store under one platform, achieving "economies of scale." Industry insiders and outsiders alike view this reversal after seven years as a procedural step toward separating E-Mart and (Shinsegae) Co., Ltd.
According to the Fair Trade Commission, for unlisted companies to recognize family-based group separation, cross-shareholding rates must be below 10%. Accordingly, completing the separation between E-Mart and (Shinsegae) Co., Ltd. requires restructuring SSG.com's shareholdings.
On June 11, E-Mart and Shinsegae decided to fully acquire the 30th% stake in SSG.com held by financial investors (FI). E-Mart paid 827.5 billion won, and Shinsegae paid 443.6 billion won to the FI, each acquiring additional corresponding stakes in SSG.com. The contract was finalized on the 26th, and currently, E-Mart holds 65.11% of SSG.com's shares, while Shinsegae holds 34.89%. Industry observers predominantly view Shinsegae Group's rapid push to establish a split entity immediately after completing share restructuring with an investment exceeding 1.2 trillion won as preparatory work for group separation.
According to Shinsegae Group, the shareholding ratios of the surviving and newly established companies will remain unchanged from current levels. While there will be no immediate changes in governance structure, it is highly likely that future transactions involving share exchanges between the two companies regarding SSG.com and Shinsegae Mall stakes will reduce each company's shareholding to 10% or below. Currently, SSG.com's business organizational chart shows a structure optimized for split entities, consisting of two main axes: grocery and lifestyle. The grocery division is already organized primarily with E-Mart department staff, while the lifestyle division is mainly composed of (Shinsegae) Co., Ltd. department employees, suggesting that personnel division work will be completed swiftly.
Once SSG.com is restructured, the only remaining shared equity link between E-Mart and (Shinsegae) Co., Ltd. will be Shinsegae Uijeongbu History. Currently, Shinsegae Uijeongbu History's shareholding structure consists of 27.55% held by Shinsegae, 25% by Gwangju Shinsegae, and 19.9% by Shinsegae Construction (a subsidiary of E-Mart). One proposed solution to lift the "10% rule" required for group separation is for Shinsegae Construction to sell its stake to (Shinsegae) Co., Ltd.
Meanwhile, Shinsegae Group officially formalized the separation of its E-Mart and department store divisions on October 30, 2024. At that time, Chief Executive Officer Jung Yu-kyung was promoted to CEO of (Shinsegae) Co., Ltd. Jeong Yong-jin (Chairman) had previously been promoted to Chairman of Shinsegae Group in March of the same year. Chairman Lee Myung-hee sold all 10% of her E-Mart shares to Jeong Yong-jin (Chairman) in January 2025 and donated 10.21% of her (Shinsegae) Co., Ltd. shares to Jeong Yu-gyeong (Chairman) in May of that year. As a result, Jeong Yong-jin (Chairman)'s E-Mart shareholding rose to 28.85%, while Jeong Yu-gyeong (Chairman)'s (Shinsegae) Co., Ltd. shareholding increased to 29.15%.
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