이 기사는 2021년 05월 04일 07시46분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

Mirae Asset Securities and KB Securities are readying a 400 billion won ($357 million) debt sale to help finance Affinity Equity Partners’ takeover of South Korea’s No. 1 job portal JobKorea, one of the most notable deals in the first half of the year.

Affinity Equity Partners has completed its acquisition of JobKorea, industry sources said on Monday.

The deal’s closing comes about six weeks after the private equity firm inked to buy the entire stake in the online recruiting company from Seoul-based H&Q Korea in a deal that valued it at some 950 billion won, including net cash. The purchase price represented almost 18 times the company’s 2020 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of 53 billion won.

Mirae Asset Securities and KB Securities have arranged 200 billion won each in loans to help finance the transaction. The loans were made last Friday, one working day before the deal’s closing date, which was unusual.

The securities firms started marketing the debt to institutional investors in the middle of last month. Despite smaller senior loan portion compared to other debt packages for private equity buyouts, the planned debt sale is said to be attracting strong interest with plenty of liquidity in the market.

In September last year, Mirae Asset Securities and KB Securities provided financing to back Affinity Equity Partners’ 600 billion won minority stake purchase in Shinhan Financial Group in September last year. At the time, the private equity firm first contributed the entire amount from its own fund to complete the transaction and then recapitalized its investment vehicle with 300 billion won in loan. The two brokers also jointly arranged a 300 billion loan to help fund the firm’s 2017 buyout of cookware maker Lock & Lock.

KB Securities helped maintenance and repairs firm Serve One, which was acquired by Affinity Equity Partners in 2019, refinance its 400 billion won debt in November last year. It also arranged 125 billion in loan financing alongside NH NongHyup Bank to back Affinity Equity Partners’ minority stake acquisition in Hyundai Card in 2017. (Reporting by Hee-yeon Han)