이 기사는 2020년 05월 29일 08시00분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

Metistone Equity Partners and NP Investments (NPI) have teamed up to acquire MegaStudy Edu in a bid to build their portfolios of education services.

Metistone has partnered with NPI to acquire MegaStudy Edu, which is an online education services platform spun off from MegaStudy Co., Ltd. in 2015, sources said on May 27.

The two firms are seeking to buy a 34 percent stake in the company for about 300 billion won ($241 million) from existing shareholders including MegaStudy Chairman Son Joo-eun, MegaStudy Edu Chief Executive Son Seong-eun and specially related parties, along with purchasing some of the new shares. They plan to launch a 200 billion won co-investment fund to finance the acquisition and raise the remaining 100 billion won from loans.

Metistone is a buyout-focused private equity firm founded by President Park Gyu-hyun in October 2014. For the last five and a half years, it has managed eight project funds. Its notable deals include its investment in Singaporean ecommerce unicorn Qoo10.

Park himself was an entrepreneur who founded commerce software provider E-Net in 1996 before listing the company on the Kosdaq market in 2000. He also has rich experience in overseas markets and a track record of several successful pre-IPO investments in Chinese startups currently traded on the Nasdaq. Park is said to be preparing for listing Qoo10 on the Nasdaq.

Among other notable portfolio companies is Settlebank. The exit from the electronic payment platform generated an internal rate of return (IRR) of nearly 55 percent for Medistone. The firm’s aggregate assets under management are approximately 127 billion won.

NPI is a relatively young private equity fund founded by Samuel Hwang in December 2018. Hwang worked as head of WeWork Labs Korea. He also worked as a director of the Hong Kong MIT Innovation Node and served as a board member of the MIT Sandbox Funding Board. NPI targets growth companies seeking to expand into overseas markets.

NPI has two active funds with 12 portfolio companies including Indian grocery startup NinjaCart. Among its investments in Korea are Riiid, which operates TOEIC content app Santa, and preschool content provider Smart Study, which operates Pinkfong Baby Shark.

(Reporting by Se-hun Jo)