[Edaily Reporter Kyung Gye-young] Hyungji I&C, known for its men’s clothing brand “Yezak” and women’s clothing brand “Caris Note,” has hit a snag ahead of the launch of a new brand targeting men in their 20s and 30s. The company had initially planned to raise investment funds through a rights offering, but the scale of the offering was cut in half due to a decline in its stock price.

#Hyungji I&C announced on the 2nd that the initial issue price for new shares in the rights offering had been set at 2,030 won per share. Following the announcement of the rights offering—which came after the company conducted a 10-for-1 reverse stock split in April—the price dropped to about half of the initially estimated 4,670 won per share. The scale of the rights offering is expected to shrink from 13.1 billion won to 5.7 billion won.

The reduction in the scale of the rights offering has also disrupted the company’s fundraising plans. Hyungji I&C had planned to allocate 8 billion won of the 13.1 billion won raised through the rights offering to investments in new brands and 5.1 billion won to repay short- and long-term borrowings. Due to this change in the new share issuance price, Hyungji I&C has decided to allocate the entire 5.7 billion won raised through the rights offering to investments in new brands. Hyungji I&C explained that it will carry out the debt repayment without disruption by readjusting the priorities of the original plan and utilizing funds efficiently.

The new brand investment plan has also been revised. For planning and product manufacturing, marketing and advertising, logistics and infrastructure, research and development (R&D), and systems. However, the investment for 2028 has been reduced to 2.104 billion won. This means the pressure on the new brand to establish itself in the market and become self-sustaining within three years has increased significantly.

“BOLDINI,” the new brand that Hyungji I&C has positioned as a future growth engine—even going so far as to conduct a rights offering—is an online-exclusive brand scheduled to launch this September. The brand’s primary target demographic is men in their late 20s to mid-30s—a consumer segment where Hyungji I&C has historically been weak, yet one that boasts a high conversion rate to actual purchases in the online men’s fashion market. Building on the technical expertise and know-how accumulated through its existing men’s brands, Yezak and Bon, the company aims to achieve both quality competitiveness and profitability by offering high-quality patterns optimized for Korean men’s body types across two lines: Regular and Slim.

Hyungji I&C projects Boldini’s 2028 sales and operating profit at 10 billion won and 2.1 billion won, respectively. Compared to Hyungji I&C’s own projected standalone sales and operating profit for the same year, these figures represent 13% and 75% of those figures, respectively. As an online-exclusive brand, Hyungji I&C believes it can maximize profit margins by reducing fixed costs such as rent and sales commissions incurred by offline stores.

An official from Hyungji I&C stated, “Although the scale of funding has been reduced, we plan to manage investment execution with a focus on efficiency and profitability; however, this is not expected to significantly impact the launch of new brands or business expansion.” The official added, “The new brand will serve to enhance operational efficiency based on an online-centric business structure and strengthen the company’s brand portfolio.”