이 기사는 2019년 12월 12일 08:39 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

South Korea’s contact lens original development manufacturing (ODM) company Vision Science has been put up for sale. The contact lens manufacturer, which exports its products to 30 different countries around the world, is likely to draw interest from potential buyers.

According to industry sources on December 9, Vision Science’s management rights are up for sale. The sell-side hasn’t decided the bidding timeline yet, while the transaction is likely to be a private deal. It is said that several strategic and financial investors have reviewed the buyout of Vision Science. Samil PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is acting as a lead manager of the sale.

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.

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 has expanded its distribution routes to China and the U.S., and it clinched 10 million dollars in export in 2014. Its sales recorded 14 billion won last year, which is a 21.8 percent increase compared to 2017. It turned to a 900 million won net profit in the same period.

Domestic contact lens industry has been reshaped by daily disposable lenses. The contact lens market is strictly regulated by each nation’s government agencies. 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. These give Vision Science a plenty of room for solid performance.

In this light, market watchers say that strategic investors who are willing to diversify their business and financial investors who got attracted to the company’s upside potential will likely be interested in the management right. “Manufacturers and distributors of consumption goods may review [the acquisition of] Vision Science in order to create synergy. Private equity firms who have portfolio companies that are in the same field may also focus on the company,” said an IB industry source.

(By reporter Rho Arrum)