MBK to buy Modern House from Korea's E-Land for $626m

E-Land will use proceeds from the deal to pay down its debt, according to a statement widely cited by local media. The company has made a number of deals aimed at reducing its liabilities, including last year’s sale of teen clothing division Teenie Weenie to China’s V-Grass Fashion for RMB5.7 billion ($853 million). That deal came about after a proposed carve-out of luxury grocery chain Kim’s Club by KKR fell through.

MBK plans to integrate Modern House with Homeplus, the South Korean unit of Tesco that the GP bought in 2015 for GBP4.2 billion ($6.4 billion) as part of a consortium including Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Singapore’s Temasek Holdings and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board. Homeplus is one of South Korea’s largest multi-channel retailers, with more than 1,000 outlets nationwide.

Modern House was launched in 1996 and has 63 branches across South Korea. According to E-Land the brand reported KRW300 billion in revenue last year. E-Land has agreed to allow Modern House outlets to operate in its department stores for the next 10 years.

MBK is investing out of its fourth North Asia-focused buyout fund, which closed in December at $4.1 billion. The GP, which was founded in 2005 by former Carlyle Group executive Michael Kim, targets control deals in South Korea, Japan and Greater China.

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• Topics
• North Asia
• Consumer
• Buyouts
• South Korea
• MBK Partners