PE-owned Samyang closes up on debut after $60m IPO

Samyang’s stock peaked at KRW19,250 on June 2 before closing at KRW16,800. The company previously sold four million shares – all held by VIG – at KRW16,700, the bottom end of the indicative range. The company is worth KRW167 billion, based on the IPO price, well in excess of the KRW68 billion VIG paid for the business in August 2013.

The private equity firm has already generated a more than 2x return on its investment through the proceeds of the offering and dividend recaps. It retains a 60% stake in Samyang, which it plans to sell to a strategic investor in due course.

“The IPO of Samyang Optics demonstrates VIG’s capability to create value in the Korean mid-market buyouts,” said Jason Shin, managing partner at VIG, in a statement. “We believe there continue to be tremendous opportunities in the Korean mid-market buyouts, and we will continue to focus on executing our successful strategy in this sector.”

Founded in 1972, Samyang started out producing interchangeable lenses for film cameras and later diversified into manufacturing lenses for CCTV cameras. VIG acquired the business after the owner ran into financial difficulty in his other businesses and needed capital to pay off creditors.

The GP recognized there was an opportunity in refocusing Samyang on interchangeable lenses, capitalizing on how technological improvements were driving demand for DSLR cameras. As a result, it quickly wound down the CCTV lens business and moved into new areas such as auto-focus interchangeable lenses.

In 2014, revenue came to KRW51.6 billion and the split was 49% traditional camera lenses, 37% video lenses, and 9.7% other products, including CCTV. Two years on, the CCTV business had more or less disappeared but revenue had grown to KRW62.7 billion, with traditional camera lenses contributing 60% and video lenses about 40%.

Samyang reported a net profit of KRW15.9 billion in 2016, up from KRW13.1 billion in 2015 and KRW12.5 billion the year before that. Between 2013 and 2016, EBITDA increased more than 70% to reach KRW21.5 billion.

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• Topics
• North Asia
• Technology
• Consumer
• IPO
• South Korea
• Exit
• VIG Partners