Hahn & Co agrees $322m acquisition of SK Chemicals unit

SK Chemicals said in a filing that it decided to divest the asset in order to invest in core operations and explore M&A opportunities in new areas. The company divides its business into two areas, life sciences and green chemicals. Biofuels falls into the latter category. SK Chemicals supplies biodiesel for use in transportation and biofuel for power generation under the Ecoprime brand.

The company generated KRW1.37 trillion in revenue last year, of which KRW277 billion came from the biofuels business.

Hahn closed its third Korea-focused buyout fund with $3.2 billion in commitments in September 2019. The corpus is split between a $2.7 billion core vehicle and a $500 million co-investment sidecar so the firm can flex up for larger deals. Speaking to AVCJ after the fund close, founder Scott Hahn said he was seeing more big-ticket opportunities, many of them corporate divestments.

“Chaebols increasingly want to trade in and out of businesses, to strengthen at the core. This is done through choice; it’s not like the Asian financial crisis 20 years ago where they were selling out of need. None of our deals have happened because the seller didn’t have access to capital,” he said. “I think this is just the beginning. There isn’t that much momentum right now – it’s just us and a few others doing these deals – but it should pick up consistently over time.”

The firm’s previous acquisitions from SK Group include used-car retailer SK Encar, renewable energy project developer SK D&D, and wet tanker and liquefied natural gas transporter SK Shipping. At $3.7 billion, SK Shipping represented one of Korea’s largest non-government led corporate restructurings.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• North Asia
• Buyouts
• Industrials
• South Korea
• Hahn & Co
• energy
• Commodities