SEOUL, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- Germany's Delivery Hero will acquire South Korea's top food-delivery app for $4 billion.
Woowa Brothers, which operates the Baedal Minjok app, said Friday Delivery Hero will take over 87 percent of its stake held by such investors as Goldman Sachs and Hillhouse Capital.
The remaining 13 percent, which is owned by Woowa founder Kim Bong-jin and the firm's top management, will be converted into shares of Delivery Hero.
As a result, Kim will become the largest individual shareholder of Delivery Hero. The entrepreneur will also join the Berlin-based firm's three-person global advisory committee. along with CEO Niklas Ostberg and CFO Emmanuel Thomassin, according to Woowa.
The two companies plan to establish a pan-Asian joint venture, named Woowa DH Asia, in Singapore that is designed to expand Delivery Hero's presence across the continent.
As the chairman of the new joint venture, Kim will head Delivery Hero's operations in 11 Asian countries, including Vietnam, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and the Philippines.
Kim founded Woowa Brothers in 2011, and Delivery Hero tapped into the South Korean market by setting up its subsidiary RGP Korea in 2012, which runs the country's second-biggest delivery app, Yogiyo.
It also acquired No. 3 player Baedaltong in 2015.
Woowa said that its app and other Delivery Hero-held apps will be run independently even after the merger.
