KKR sells Unisteel to Swiss trade buyer

Latch Holding, a special purpose vehicle of KKR Asian Fund, wholly acquired Unisteel for $547 million in 2008, alongside the company's management and employees.

Unisteel manufactures precision components such as precision fasteners, stamped components, machining parts, engineered plastics and optical parts from its facilities located in China and Malaysia.

When combined with Unisteel, SFS will employs more than 7,000 people globally, including Unisteel's current management team, who will join their new parent and retain responsibility for their global electronics business.

"At the time of the investment, KKR saw the opportunity to partner with Unisteel's management team to help strengthen their foundational capabilities in order to make the business more responsive and more diversified, and therefore better positioned for the future," said Ming Lu, member of KKR and head of Southeast Asia. "With this transaction, Unisteel now has an excellent platform for further growth as a part of the SFS Group."

Rippledot Capital Advisers and Credit Suisse acted as financial advisers to KKR, while Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Allen & Gledhill acted as legal counsels. UBS acted as financial adviser to SFS Group, and WongPartnership acted as its legal counsel.

KKR's other investments into Southeast Asia have included Avago Technologies and MMI Holdings, both in Singapore, and Masan Consumer Corporation last year, which represented the largest-ever PE deal in the Vietnamese market.

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• Topics
• Exits
• Southeast Asia
• Industrials
• KKR
• Singapore
• Trade sale