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Photo courtesy of Douzone Bizon |
[Alpha Biz= Kim Jisun] Global private equity firm EQT Partners is set to launch a tender offer for the remaining 57.7% stake in Douzone Bizon, South Korea’s leading enterprise resource planning (ERP) service provider, with the aim of taking the company private through a voluntary delisting.
According to investment banking sources on February 22, Doronicum, a special purpose vehicle (SPC) established by EQT, will conduct a tender offer from February 23 through March 24 for 18,158,974 shares of Douzone Bizon, representing 57.7% of its outstanding shares. The offer price has been set at KRW 120,000 per share, identical to the price agreed upon in the share purchase agreement (SPA) signed in November last year with former controlling shareholder Kim Yong-woo and related parties.
The offer price represents a 25.0% premium to Douzone Bizon’s closing price of KRW 96,000 on February 20. The total transaction value of the tender offer amounts to approximately KRW 2.179 trillion, with NH Investment & Securities serving as the lead manager.
EQT stated that the purpose of the tender offer is to transform Douzone Bizon into a wholly owned subsidiary through voluntary delisting. “By going private, we aim to enhance managerial flexibility and accelerate decision-making, allowing the company to focus on long-term growth strategies,” the firm said.
This transaction is expected to rank among the largest tender offers in the Korean market, comparable in scale to the tender offer for Osstem Implant by the MBK Partners–UCK Partners consortium and the recent takeover-related tender offers involving MBK Partners and Korea Zinc.
In November last year, EQT signed an SPA to acquire 10,964,909 shares (34.8%) of Douzone Bizon for KRW 1.3158 trillion, securing management control by purchasing a 23.2% stake held by Chairman Kim Yong-woo and a combined 14.4% stake held by affiliates of Shinhan Financial Group. Douzone Bizon currently holds 2,354,110 treasury shares. If the tender offer is completed successfully, EQT will own 100% of the company excluding treasury shares, equivalent to 92.5% of total issued shares. The statutory threshold for voluntary delisting in Korea is 95%.
The total capital to be invested by EQT in the acquisition of Douzone Bizon is expected to reach approximately KRW 3.5 trillion.
Founded in 1991, Douzone Bizon develops and provides business software solutions primarily for small and medium-sized enterprises in Korea. The company holds the top position in the domestic ERP market and also offers related services including tax, accounting, compliance, and corporate communication solutions.
EQT, a private equity firm backed by Sweden’s Wallenberg family, is widely expected to support Douzone Bizon’s overseas expansion. Leveraging the company’s extensive corporate data assets, EQT is reportedly pursuing a strategy to develop Douzone Bizon into a pan-Asian B2B platform. The firm’s acquisition last year of Remember & Company, a Korean business networking platform, for approximately KRW 500 billion is also expected to generate synergies across corporate accounting, human resources, and outsourcing services.
Alphabiz Reporter Kim Jisun(stockmk2020@alphabiz.co.kr)
