AVCJ

Ontario Teachers win Kyobo Life stake - update

  • Susannah Birkwood
  • LinkedIn  
  • Google plus  
  • Save this article  

Canada's Ontario Teachers Pension Plan has become the preferred bidder for a stake in Kyobo Life Insurance edging out other interested party, Affinity Equity Partners. Contrary to earlier media reports, the pension fund did not team up with existing shareholder Corsair Capital for the bid.

The 9.9% stake Ontario Teachers Pension Plan is being sold by Korea Asset Management Corp (KAMCO) and is valued at KRW470 billion ($398 million), or KRW230,000 ($190) per share, according to the Chosun Ilbo.

Finance-focused private equity firm Corsair, which issued a statement denying involvement with the stake purchase, already holds 5.28% of the group, which it acquired for KRW200.3 billion ($215.3 million) in 2007.

The preferred bidder is likely to be finalized on Friday, with Samsung Securities managing the sales mandate.

A further 24% of Kyobo Life's share capital was put on the block by Daewoo International in a separate sale, and this has attracted the attention of Affinity Equity Partners, Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, the Carlyle Group and MBK Partners. The deadline for expressions of interest was in April. Australia's Macquarie and Barclays Capital are running the sales process.

Carlyle and Affinity previously sought to invest in Kyobo Life in 2010. They conducted due diligence on the business with a view to picking up a 24% stake estimated to be worth up to $697 million.

  • LinkedIn  
  • Google plus  
  • Save this article  

More on Financials

Latest News

world-hands-globe-climate-esg
Asian GPs slow implementation of ESG policies - survey

Asia-based private equity firms are assigning more dedicated resources to environment, social, and governance (ESG) programmes, but policy changes have slowed in the past 12 months, in part due to concerns raised internally and by LPs, according to a...

  • GPs