이 기사는 2022년 05월 06일 08:14 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

A consortium led by South Korea’s GS Holdings has completed the acquisition of Hugel from US private equity firm Bain Capital.

The deal closed on Tuesday, eight months after the consortium agreed to buy a roughly 43.2% stake in the South Korean botox maker for about 1.7 trillion won ($1.34 billion) through a mix of new shares and hybrid debt in August last year.

Other investors in the consortium included Seoul-based private equity firm IMM Investment, Singapore-based healthcare-focused investment firm CBC Group and Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund Mubadala.

Bain Capital is believed to have made big profits from the sale. The 1.7 trillion won price was almost twice what the firm paid for a 44.4% stake in the pharmaceutical company in 2017.

BoA Merrill Lynch advised Bain Capital. Including the Hugel sale, the US investment bank advised three mega deals in the South Korean mergers and acquisitions market this year alone: It worked with MBK Partners on the Doosan Machine Tools sale and advised KDB Investment on its sale of Daewoo Engineering & Construction. Both deals were valued at more than 2 trillion won.

BoA Merrill Lynch ranked second on the South Korean M&A league table for financial advisers compiled by the bell in 2021.

The Hugel sale was led by Chanhee Cho, managing director and head of BoA Merrill Lynch’s Seoul office. A Seoul National University graduate, Cho joined BoA Merrill Lynch in 2011 and was promoted to the current role in March last year.

The GS-led consortium’s deal for Hugel was subject to government approval because of botulinum toxin technology. The South Korean trade ministry gave the green light to the deal in December.

In February, GS Holdings and IMM Investment, the two South Korean investors in the consortium, signed the revised agreement to raise their stakes in Hugel, suggesting their strong commitment to growing the country’s leading botox maker.

Hugel, founded in 2001, made its Kosdaq debut in 2015. The pharmaceutical company offers botox, filler and cosmetics products, which represented 52%, 32% and 8% of its total revenue in 2020, respectively. (Reporting by Ha-na Suh)