High Court orders winding-up of Qoo10 and appoints liquidators

Judge finds platform is insolvent after Korean firm says it is owed more than $70m

- Grace Leong

The Singapore High Court on Nov 11 ordered beleaguered online marketplace Qoo10 to be wound up and for liquidators from AAG Corporate Advisory to take over management of the insolvent company.

This comes after Korea Culture Promotion (KCP), which operates culture portal sites and issues culture gift certificates in South Korea, sought to wind up Qoo10 over nearly 76 billion won (S$72.4 million) in unpaid debt.

Describing itself as one of Qoo10's "many merchants left high and dry", KCP alleged that Qoo10 had defaulted on 5.8 billion won in payments for gift certificates, according to court papers seen by The Straits Times.

KCP also claims Qoo10 refused to honour its guarantees to secure more than 70 billion won in debt from its two e-commerce platform units, Tmon and WeMakePrice.

Both Qoo10 subsidiaries have filed for corporate rehabilitation in the Seoul Bankruptcy Court, after failing to make payments to merchants using their platforms since early July 2024.

In addition, six other creditors, including SCI Ecommerce, 21st Century Healthcare, Mister Mobile Trading and Shenzhen Lanmey Industries - which are together owed sums of $3.26 million and more than US$381,000 (S$508,000) notified the court that they supported KCP's winding-up application.

Qoo10's lawyer Luke Netto disputed KCP's claims but took no issue with the claims made by the other creditors.

The court allowed 21st Century Healthcare, which said it is owed $954,115, to replace KCP as the claimant.