이 기사는 2020년 02월 07일 08시00분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

South Korean private equity firm Hahn & Company is set to acquire SK Chemicals’ biofuel business.

SK Chemicals, the chemicals and life science arm of the country’s conglomerate SK Group, announced Wednesday that it would sell its biofuel business to Hahn & Co. for 382.5 billion won ($323 million). The company said it plans to focus on enhancing the value of its existing businesses and use the proceeds from the sale for new projects including mergers and acquisitions.

The business produces and distributes biofuels such as biodiesel and bio heavy fuel oil. The book value of its assets totaled 132.4 billion won ($112 million) as of the end of 2018. It posted revenue of 277 billion won ($234 million) for 12 months ended December 2018, accounting for about 20 percent of SK Chemicals’ total revenue.

“Hahn & Company will likely invest in SK Chemicals’ biofuel business through its third fund closed last year,” said an industry source. In 2019, Hahn & Co. raised $2.7 billion for its third buyout fund and $500 million for a co-investment fund. The pool of capital gathered from the latest fundraising was more than 2.5 times the size of the firm’s $1.2 billion second fund closed in 2014.

In nine years since its inception in 2010, Hahn & Co. has grown to the second largest private equity firm in Korea, with more than 8.1 trillion won ($6.8 billion) under management.

In 2011, the Seoul-based firm closed its first fund, through which the buyout firm largely invested in cement industry. It bought stakes in several cement makers, including Daehan Cement and Ssangyong Cement, implementing a “bolt-on” strategy in which a private equity firm aims to generate synergy by investing in companies in the same or similar industry.

With its second buyout fund, Hahn & Co. expanded across other sectors, acquiring companies in the manufacturing, shipping, retail and hotel industries. In 2014, it founded H-Line Shipping after buying bulk carrier units from Hanjin Shipping and Hyundai Merchant Marine, followed by the acquisition of a controlling stake in SK Shipping from the country’s conglomerate SK Group in 2018.

(By reporter Kim Byung-yoon)