IMM reaches $1.3b first close on Fund IV, strikes two deals

IMM launched the vehicle at the start of the year with a target of $1.5 billion. Korean investors – including the National Pension Service (NPS) – accounted for $900 million collected during the first quarter. The $400 million raised since then comes from foreign and local LPs.

The two investments made so far are a $1.2 billion carve-out of global industrial gases player Linde’s Korea-based assets and the purchase of KRW750 million ($637 million) in convertible preferred shares in Shinhan Financial Group. While the Linde divestment was triggered by the company’s merger with Praxair, Shinhan took in external capital as part of a collaboration intended to foster M&A activity. LPs have pumped over $600 million in co-investment into these deals.

IMM has a relatively large local LP base, with around 30 investors participating in its previous fund, RoseGold III. The biggest commitments came from NPS, Korea Post, and Korea Teachers’ Credit Union. The fund closed in October 2016 on $1.16 billion after two years in the market. Local investors put in $950 million. The 17% foreign share represented a meaningful uptick from Fund II, which closed at $720 million in 2012.

The firm made 10 investments from Fund II, with co-investment plus debt and mezzanine financing taking the aggregate capital deployed to $1.8 billion. There was more of the same in Fund III. IMM is said to have distributed $800 million in co-investment to LPs on top of the $1.15 billion corpus.

While RoseGold IV will follow the strategy of its predecessors and pursue minority and control deals – the split was 50-50 in Funds II and III – IMM has over time played a more active role across all its deals. The firm has around two dozen investment professionals divided into sector teams under the three co-CIOs that cover industrials and financial services, energy and healthcare, and consumer and technology.

In addition, from Fund II onwards, IMM has employed a secondment policy, whereby all team members involved in a control deal are required to work directly with the portfolio company for three to six months. In this way, the firm can confirm firsthand where the company’s greatest strengths and weaknesses lie, as well as give team members a sense of ownership of the company.  

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• Topics
• North Asia
• Fundraising
• Buyout
• Growth
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• South Korea
• IMM Investment