이 기사는 2020년 02월 28일 08:00 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

South Korean PE firms JKL Partners and WJ Private Equity are on the course to complete the transaction to acquire a partial stake in Yulkok, the country's largest aerospace and defense spare part supplier.

A consortium of the two firms signed an agreement last December to buy convertible preferred stock issued by Yulkok in a deal that could have valued the company at hundreds of billions of won. The transaction, worth about 40 billion won, is expected to close as early as the beginning of March, sources close to the deal said on Monday. The percentage of the stake acquisition has not been disclosed.

JKL Partners and WJ Private Equity plan to jointly form a special purpose company, which will pay the purchase price for the shares. JKL Partners plans to use its fourth fund to finance the purchase. Meanwhile, WJ Private Equity, a new PE firm, is currently working on raising capital for a project-specific fund, through which it will deploy more than 20 billion won to invest in the company.

There is still a possibility that the consortium could buy additional equity securities to increase the investment amount up to 100 billion won. But, in any case, Yulkok’s chief executive will likely remain to be the largest shareholder in the company.

“Things appear to be going smoothly in terms of funding and due diligence,” an industry insider said. “The possibility also remains that the transaction amount could become larger than initially reported.”

Yulkok generated revenue of nearly 77 billion won and EBIT of 9.2 billion won for 12 months ended December 31, 2019. During this year, the company is expected to continue its growth run, with revenue expected to exceed 100 billion won and EBITDA to grow to 23 billion won.

Last year, several domestic PE firms including IMM Investment made pre-IPO investments – worth a combined more than 20 billion won – in the company’s rival Kencoa Aerospace Corporation, which is planning to list on Kosdaq next month.

In 2018, Yulkok also hired Daishin Securities to prepare for an initial public offering (IPO), but delayed its IPO plan after receiving a qualified audit opinion from its auditor.

Yulkok plans to use the proceeds from the transaction to boost capital expenditure and improve financial soundness.

(By reporter Choi Ik-hwan)