South Korea's Woongjin Holdings to sell stake in Woongjin Coway for $965 mn

South Korea's Woongjin Holdings today agreed to sell its stake in water purifier maker Woongjin Coway Co to local private equity firm MBK Partners, for 1.02 trillion won ($965 million) in order to fund its solar business.

Woongjin Holdings, whose businesses range from chemicals, solar energy to publishing and finance, will sell its 28.4 per cent stake in listed Woongjin Coway – South Korea's biggest water purifier maker.

MBK Partners, one of Asia's top private equity funds, will a buy an additional 2.5 per cent from other shareholders at 50,000 won a share, a premium of 33 per cent to Woongjin Coway's Tuesday closing price of 37,550 won, taking its total stake to 30.9 per cent.

Woongjin did not provide details of the deal, but several media reports said that MBK Partners will get board control of the company, and Woongjin Holdings will have the right of first refusal to buy back its stake from MBK Partners.

Woongjin Holdings had had in February hired Goldman Sachs to explore a sale, and the auction drew interest from some South Korean retailers like GS Retail Co and Lotte Group, as well as from China's largest electronics retailer Konka Group and South Korean fund KTB Private Equity.

Although its stake in February was valued at as much as 1.5 trillion won, falling share price of the company due to a sluggish market fetched only 1.02 trillion won.

Woongjin Holdings said that it plans to spend the 1.2 trillion won in its construction and solar cell business and on new growth engines.