South Korea's Shinsegae, E-Mart to get $940 million PE funding for e-commerce

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean department store operator Shinsegae and its supermarket affiliate E-Mart said on Friday they have signed a preliminary deal for more than 1 trillion won ($940 million) from private equity firms for a planned online business company.

Affinity Equity Partners and BRV Capital Management will invest the money in a bet on the growth potential in one of the world's most wired countries.

Shinsegae shares jumped as much as 14 percent and E-mart's stock surged 16 percent after the announcement.

Shinsegae and E-Mart will spin off and combine their online business units to launch a separate company this year, the firms said in regulatory filings.

Shinsegae's online business, whose sales have been growing by double-digits in recent years, aims to boost its annual sales by five-fold to 10 trillion won in 2023.

($1 = 1,065.6700 won)

(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Malcolm Foster)