이 기사는 2019년 12월 13일 08:00 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

With South Korea’s contact lens original development manufacturing (ODM) company Vision Science put up for sale, Kolmar Korea has reportedly shown interest in acquiring the lens maker’s management rights.

According to industry sources on Monday, Vision Science’s management rights are put up for sale. It is said that South Korean cosmetic firm Kolmar Korea has attempted to acquire Vision Science, and several strategic and financial investors have reviewed a buyout of the company after that.

The global contact lens market is expected to grow at compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.9 percent over the next five years despite slowing global economy. According to a report from National Institute of Medical Device Safety Information, the global contact lens market is projected to grow from 7.2 billion dollar in 2018 to 9.2 billion dollar in 2023. Contact lens manufacturers have prepared to keep pace with the trend, receiving approvals and licenses from individual countries around the world.

Vision Science has put efforts on improving quality of products. The company received a patent for the Color Lock System, the technology which enables colors of contact lenses to be located between lens layers, in 2016. Vision Science received an approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2014 and China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA, formally known as CFDA) has granted priority review status to the company in 2015.

Kolmar Korea reportedly was attracted to the value of Vision Science. The cosmetic firm has drawn attention from the capital market with expanding its business into related industries through active M&A deals. It seems Vision Science was one of the target companies that Kolmar Korea has considered.

Kolmar Korea acquired CJ Healthcare in April 2018 and its subsidiary, Kolmask, acquired Jayjun Cosmetic's plant in Incheon in July to boost its management efficiency and productivity.

“With Kolmar Korea trying to acquire Vision Science’s management rights, the market is focusing [on the company],” said an IB industry source, adding “The form of the transaction is likely to be a limited sealed bid at first, but it will eventually be changed to a private deal. The company is expected be sold to a potential buyer who is determined to sign the deal.”

Established in 2004, Vision Science has its headquarters in Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang Province. The company was selected as the promising small and medium enterprise of the region by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups in 2017 and awarded the Innopolis Technology Commercialization Excellent Enterprise last year. Having focused on color contact lenses, the company’s mainstay products are Vision Maxim and Colors Nouveau. It clinched 10 million dollars in export in 2014. Its sales recorded 14 billion won last year and turned to a 900 million won net profit in the same period.

(By reporter Rho Arrum)