E-commerce operator Kuobrothers Corp (創業家兄弟) on Thursday said that it is to buy Mobix Corp (松果購物), its 53 percent owned e-commerce subsidiary, through a share swap scheme.
Kuobrothers plans to issue 6,631,724 new shares to buy out Mobix shares that it does not own, based on an exchange ratio of 0.91 Kuobrothers shares for one Mobix share.
The move is to allow the two companies to improve resource consolidation in an increasingly crowded e-commerce environment, Kuobrothers said.
It is in line with trends for e-commerce firms to form conglomerates, Kuobrothers chairman Jerry Kuo (郭書齊) said.
INTEGRATION
“Our third-quarter figures were not that great, but after the integration, we will see results,” Kuo said.
Kuobrothers reported a net loss of NT$6.28 million (US$217,904) in the third quarter, compared with a net profit of NT$4.67 million a year earlier.
In the first three quarters of this year, net profit totaled NT$28.14 million, down 19.74 percent from NT$35.06 million in the same period last year.
Earnings per share (EPS) in the period fell to NT$1.13 from NT$1.41.
Revenue in the first 10 months fell 7.08 percent year-on-year to NT$3.8 billion, company data showed.
Mobix has yet to release its earnings for last quarter. It reported a net profit of NT$22.13 million in the first two quarters, up 316.8 percent from NT$5.31 million a year earlier, or a rise in EPS to NT$1.4 from NT$0.37.
Revenue in the first 10 months increased 26.31 percent to NT$285.56 million from a year earlier.
Kuo said that the two firms were “fighting their own battles” previously.
While the merger would let them consolidate resources, he intends for their brands to remain separate.
“Both companies have their own members and brand value, it would be a shame to lose that,” he said.
The share swap would be completed by June, after which Mobix would be delisted from the Taipei Exchange, Kuobrothers said.
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