이 기사는 2020년 03월 19일 08:00 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

Credian Partners is drawing attention from market players as the Seoul-based firm is said to participate in buying MagnaChip Semiconductor’s foundry business in a deal led by SK Hynix.

Credian Partners, together with Alchemist Capital Partners, plans to invest in a special purpose entity incorporated to acquire MagnaChip’s foundry business for about 400 billion won, sources familiar with the matter said on Monday. Each firm will cover about 50 percent of the total acquisition cost.

The two firms are working on raising capital for their funds solely for the planned acquisition. Korean Federation of Community Credit Cooperatives (KFCC) will likely be an anchor investor in Credian’s new fund, while SK Hynix is to invest in Alchemist’s fund as a limited partner.

Credian Partners is a relatively young PE firm founded in August 2014. It has so far made four investments, most of which were foreign subsidiaries of domestic companies.

In 2015, the firm raised a 76 billion won fund to invest in Green Cross Bio Therapeutics (GCBT), a Canadian subsidiary of South Korean pharmaceutical company Green Cross, in partnership with Stonebridge Capital. In the following year, the firm’s second fund worth 13.5 billion won invested in a U.S. subsidiary of life science company Macrogen.

In 2017, Credian Partners, together with Korea Investment Partners, invested in Wise UX Global, which is a company known for its chicken breast food brand Imdak. Credian received 23.4 billion won of commitments for its third fund dedicated to this investment. In its latest deal, the firm reportedly invested in H&Iruja, a manufacturer of OLED production equipment.

The firm is led by two Cornell MBA graduates, Kim Yeon-kyu and Woo Sung-yoon.

Kim spent early years of his career at Accenture and Samjong KPMG, and built his investment career at ABN Amro, Stonebridge Capital and HSBC after finishing the MBA program. Woo studied law at Yonsei University and enrolled in the MBA program, after which he worked at Mirae Asset Global Investments PE.

(By reporter Han Hee-yeon)