이 기사는 2021년 11월 30일 08시06분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

South Korea’s private equity firm Korea Corporate Governance Improvement (KCGI) plans to make a secondary investment in information security solutions provider Wins by acquiring shares from existing investors.

KCGI is seeking to create a project fund to acquire a stake in Wins from investors including Crescendo Equity Partners and CEP Security Holdings, said industry sources. The PE firm is carrying out marketing campaigns to limited partners to raise about 40 billion won ($33 million) to fund the acquisition.

Crescendo Equity Partners and CEP Security Holdings invested 24 billion won in Wins in 2016 by acquiring convertible bonds and bond with warrant issued by the company at a conversion price of 12,000 won.

In 2019, the two investors exercised their conversion rights, which made them together hold a 4.41% stake in Wins. The investors have reportedly accelerated talks with KCGI as they mulled over possible ways to exit their investment.

KCGI is stepping up efforts to raise a project fund to buy the stake as it seeks to capitalize on potential synergies between Wins and its existing portfolio company InnoWireless.

KCGI and Helios Private Equity acquired a 13.58% stake in InnoWireless in 2018 for 20.4 billion won alongside 13 billion won worth of convertible bonds issued by InnoWireless. Strategic investor LIG Nex1 also purchased a 5% stake in the company.

In November 2020, LIG Nex1 exercised its call option to purchase an additional 16.56% stake in InnoWireless held by the two PE investors, becoming the largest shareholder of the company. KCGI and Helios PE are currently the second-largest shareholder with a 10.9% stake.

InnoWireless manufactures communication test and measurement equipment and small cells. Wins is currently focusing on the information security solutions, such as intrusion prevention system and APT attack response solutions along with security consulting and private video security services.

Wins’ strong presence in the information security solutions sector is expected to create synergy with InnoWireless’ competitiveness in communication test and measurement equipment manufacturing, said an industry source. (Reporting by Seon-young Kim)