Next to fashion: Musinsa beautifies path to IPO

For Musinsa, fashion may have laid the foundation, but beauty is taking on a larger role in its grand vision, as Korea’s leading fashion platform nears a high-stakes stock market debut.

At the heart of Musinsa’s foray into beauty is its fast-growing private label brand, Oddtype, which launched in 2023 and is already making inroads into international markets.

Starting last month, it entered the Malaysian market through a deal with Guardian, a major health and beauty retail chain, placing its entire Oddtype product line in key stores.

The move sets the groundwork for wider expansion across Southeast Asia, including Singapore and Thailand, adding to its established presence in Japan through stores like Loft and Plaza.

“It demonstrates confidence that Oddtype’s distinctive concept and standout products will resonate with young local consumers abroad," said one industry insider.

Looking to flesh out its beauty portfolio with broader appeal, Musinsa has introduced new in-house brands like Whizzy and Rest & Recreation Beauty — the most recent being No the Love, a lifestyle-meets-dental care brand co-created with Korean TV personality Noh Hong-chul.

Musinsa’s large-scale beauty festivals, launched last year, have also become key touchpoints for customer engagement. The latest event, held in late August, attracted 14,000 attendees, 70 percent of them in them aged 10-29.

Musinsa’s beauty initiatives constitute a key pillar in showcasing growth ahead of its initial public offering, where performance and scalability will be essential to winning over investors.

It began issuing requests for proposals in August to more than 10 domestic and international securities firms and is set to receive bids by mid-September. According to industry observers, the wide net was intended to benchmark valuation estimates and extract the most favorable terms from underwriters.

“Amid a slowdown in large IPOs from major conglomerates, Musinsa’s deal has attracted intense competition among securities firms,” said one industry source.

Musinsa has yet to finalize its valuation, though market consensus places it as high as 10 trillion won ($7.2 billion), with more conservative estimates closer to 7 trillion won. US asset manager KKR reportedly valued the company at around 3.5 trillion won during its 2023 Series C funding round.

Alongside its beauty push, the fashion platform, already operating 29 Musinsa Standard stores, is expanding into category-specific retail spaces such as girls, shoes and cap, as well as its largest integrated retail hub, the Musinsa Megastore, all slated to launch next year.

Yet a standalone beauty store remains under review. “We are reviewing the possibility of opening our own beauty stores, although nothing has been confirmed yet,” a company official said.

Musinsa’s bold expansion tactics are yielding results. The company reported record half-year earnings, with revenue reaching 670.5 billion won, up 22.1 percent from a year earlier, and operating profit rising 23.1 percent to 58.9 billion won.

Yet it posted a negative operating cash flow of 71.9 billion won in the first half, reversing a 173.6 billion won surplus a year earlier — a shift indicative of inventory buildup ahead of expected demand, despite near-term pressure on liquidity.

“The company is doing well to turn its expansion into a compelling narrative,” said one investment banking source. “But investors will want proof that these initiatives are not just bold, but sustainable.”