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| AirFirst's Pyeongtaek Semiconductor Complex in Gyeonggi Province / Courtesy of IMM PE |
By Anna J. Park
IMM Private Equity (PE), one of Korea's leading private equity firms, is considering selling a minority stake in AirFirst, a major industrial gas business company in the country. AirFirst was launched in 2019, following IMM PE's acquisition of a 100-percent stake in Linde Korea's industrial gas business.
According to the investment banking sources Wednesday, the private equity firm is currently in an early tapping phase for the possible sale of the stake, aiming to figure out potential buyers' interests in the industrial gas business company.
The company hasn't yet specifically decided the exact amount of shares that it aims to sell; it is largely estimated that the private equity firm will sell an approximate 20-to-40-percent stake in the gas company, depending on deal negotiations and market conditions during the actual sale process. Market watchers expect the actual sale of the minority stake is expected to take place as early as in the first half of next year.
"Many overseas investors, such as dollar-based funds or secondary funds, have shown interest in the potential takeover," a source familiar with the issue told The Korea Times, adding that the company is planning to meet some of them overseas later this year. As strengthened dollar makes won-denominated assets more profitable, it is likely that overseas dollar-based funds will be major potential buyers.
IMM PE purchased the 100-percent stake in Linde Korea in early 2019 for 1.3 trillion won ($900 million) and renamed it AirFirst. Following IMM's acquisition, the industrial gas company's annual revenue and operating profit more than doubled over the past three years to 400.6 billion won and 70.3 billion won, respectively, in 2021. The firm's revenue and operating profit in 2019 stood at 179.7 billion won and 34.4 billion won, respectively.
Currently, the gas company's corporate value is roughly estimated to exceed some four trillion won. Given the estimated corporate valuation, if IMM PE decides to sell a 30-percent stake in AirFirst, it will be priced at over 1 trillion won.
The firm has stably been providing manufacturing and supplying industrial gas to the country's key industries: semiconductors, petrochemicals, steel and refinery. For instance, the company has been providing about half of the industrial gas needed at Samsung Electronics' semiconductor manufacturing facility, P3, in Pyeongtaek in Gyeonggi Province, and it is expected that AirFirst will take additional orders when Samsung's semiconductor facilities are expanded further.
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