Lotte Members to hand off 'Lotte Mobile Coupon' project to affiliate

Mobile gift certificate business to continue under Lotte Members

Lotte Members corporate identity logo. [Lotte Members]
Lotte Members corporate identity logo. [Lotte Members]

Lotte Members is set to transfer its mobile coupon (e-coupon) business to a Lotte Group affiliate next month.

According to industry sources Tuesday, the Lotte Mobile Coupon business currently operated by Lotte Members will be transferred on Aug. 3 to Spoon, a subsidiary of Daehong Communications, a Lotte Group advertising affiliate. Lotte Shopping had earlier transferred both its Lotte Mobile Gift Certificate and Lotte Mobile Coupon businesses to Lotte Members in January last year — meaning the acquired business is being handed off again just a year and a half later. The Lotte Mobile Gift Certificate business, however, will remain with Lotte Members.

The flagship product of the e-coupon business being transferred to Spoon is a goods-exchange coupon, issued through contracts between Lotte Members and brand partners, which customers can redeem for designated products. The Lotte Mobile Gift Certificate business, by contrast, will stay with Lotte Members because of its compatibility with the L.Point and L.Pay infrastructure.

At the time of the original transfer, the combined asset and goodwill value of the two businesses stood at 7.1 billion won ($4.59 million), with sales of around 41 billion won. Since acquiring the businesses, Lotte Members recorded approximately 29.8 billion won in sales from them last year. A Lotte Members official said the company decided to transfer the mobile coupon business to Spoon — which operates it as a core business — in order to focus on its core operations in membership, data and mobile gift certificates.

Meanwhile, Lotte Members posted consolidated sales of approximately 118.5 billion won last year, up 44.0 percent from 82.3 billion won the previous year. Operating profit, however, plunged 96.5 percent to about 20 million won from 650 million won a year earlier.


korean@heraldcorp.com