Kurly to Make Next Kitchen a Wholly Owned Subsidiary, Strengthen Ready-Meal and K-Food Exports

[Financial News] Kurly plans to strengthen its ready-meal business and K-food export capabilities by making Next Kitchen a wholly owned subsidiary.
On the 2nd, Kurly announced that it would make its affiliate Next Kitchen, a company specializing in planning and developing home meal replacement (HMR) and restaurant meal replacement (RMR) products, a wholly owned subsidiary.
The acquisition will be carried out through a small-scale share exchange involving newly issued Kurly shares and Next Kitchen shares. The exchange ratio is 6.6 Kurly shares for each Next Kitchen share, and Kurly plans to issue 334,926 new common shares.
Kurly currently holds a 46.4% stake in Next Kitchen and will acquire all of the remaining shares through the exchange. The share exchange is scheduled for December 7, after which Next Kitchen will become Kurly's wholly owned subsidiary.
Through the acquisition, Kurly plans to bring the entire process of ready-meal planning, development and distribution in-house while enhancing product competitiveness. It will also strengthen its K-food export capabilities in overseas markets, including the United States. In addition, the two companies plan to streamline their governance structures and operating systems, improve management transparency and expand business synergies.
After the subsidiary integration is completed, Next Kitchen plans to appoint Choi Jae-hoon, Kurly's chief commercial officer (CCO) and vice president, as its CEO.
Choi said, "Next Kitchen has continued to achieve steady growth based on its outstanding capabilities in ready-meal planning and development, as well as its operational expertise." He added, "With this integration as a wholly owned subsidiary, the ready-meal competitiveness and export capabilities of both companies will receive a further boost."

[email protected] Jang Yu-ha Reporter