[THE INVESTOR] NHN Entertainment, the Korean online game and service provider, is pinning high hopes on its possible investment in McDonalds’ Korea for business synergies with its own mobile payment service Payco.

The company has recently joined hands with KG Group, the operator of mobile payment service Kpay, to acquire some 400 McDonald’s outlets in Korea. The bidding war worth about 500 billion won (US$439.44 million) is heating up with food and entertainment giant CJ Group joining recently. 
“KG Group is leading the acquisition process. We are considering a partial investment,” said NHN Entertainment’s CFO Ahn Hyun-sik in a conference call on Aug. 12.

“We are pinning high hopes on McDonald’s outlets to expand our Payco service offline. We are also hoping for collaboration on games.”

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)