Kurly CEO Sophie Kim speaks to reporters during a press conference held at the company's headquarters in Seoul, Sept. 24, 2019. Yonhap

By Kim Jae-heun

Emerging e-commerce firms here have encountered obstacles in their plans to go public in the first half of this year, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine and their business models accumulating losses.

Kurly, which operates online grocery giant Market Kurly, received a 250 billion won ($202 million) investment from a Hong Kong private equity fund last year to prepare for an initial public offering (IPO) around this time. It even disclosed its plan to give its employees a stock option after the listing.

However, Kurly did not send a request to the Korea Exchange for a preliminary examination of its IPO, which takes at least six months. Kurly is unlikely to go public before June.

The problem for Kurly is that its CEO Sophie Kim holds a deficient amount of shares (6.67 percent as of December 2020) in her company to take full charge of company management. The Korea Exchange is asking her to acquire a minimum 20 percent of Kurly's shares to hold joint voting rights.

Kurly is also accumulating operating losses, which grew from 33.7 billion won in 2018 to 116.3 billion won in 2021.

Russia's ongoing war on Ukraine has increased volatility in the global market, leading to declining stock prices in the domestic market.

"Who knew the war would actually happen? There is no need for local e-commerce firms to rush their IPOs when the stock market has turned bearish," an industry insider said.

Kurly declined to comment on the exact timing of its IPO, saying only that it is going according to the plan.

SSG.com and Oasis are also agonizing over when to go public. They are worried over a possible decline in their corporate value amid the ongoing invasion and the U.S. Federal Reserve's tightening fiscal policy.

"We are preparing for our IPO smoothly with our underwriters. At the same time, we are watching the market closely," an SSG.com official said.