이 기사는 2021년 04월 13일 07시57분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

Private equity (PE) firm Affirma Capital will hold the first closing of its fifth blind-pool fund, Ascenta V, this month, with the fund expected to make its first investment in T Map Mobility.

Affirma Capital and EastBridge Partners signed a stock purchase agreement to buy a minority stake in T Map Mobility on Thursday, industry sources said. The two financial investors will invest 200 billion won ($177 million) each in the mobility subsidiary of SK Telecom to have a combined 28% stake.

Affirma Capital plans to partly use its fifth fund and acquisition loans for the investment, which is expected to close as early as mid-April.

Affima Capital started marking its fifth fund in early 2020 and will hold its initial closing at around 450 billion won this month thanks to positive response from domestic pension funds, mutual aid associations and institutional investors. Funds will be able to be executed from the end of April.

The target fund size was originally set at 500 billion won, but was later raised to 700 billion won due to a strong demand during its fundraising process. The fund size more than doubled compared to its 290 billion won fourth fund, which was created in 2016.

The fifth fund is highly likely to raise additional 50 billion won until May and the final close is expected by the end of this year.

Many of investors of the previous four funds have participated in the fifth fund alongside new limited partners. Total 14 investors promised to participate in the fifth fund while 6 limited partners invested in the fourth fund.

It is notable that the fifth fund has increased its size without Standard Chartered Group’s help, which had invested in the previous four funds as a main limited partner. This would indicate Affirma Capital’s successful fundraising capability three years after its spin-off from the group.

Affirma Capital has been spun out of Standard Chartered Bank after a complex three-year process involving over 50 investments across six regions. The firm not only uses each region’s individual funds for investment, backed by local institutional investors, but also capitalizes on a global pool of capital by using its Global Fund series, formed mainly for principal investments.

The fifth fund is raising funds from domestic institutions but it may invest in foreign assets. Investors appear to have decided to participate in the fifth fund because of Affirma Capital’s series of successful exits. The firm exited from EMC Holdings last year by selling the company to SK Engineering & Construction for 1.05 trillion won, which generated a money multiple of 18 times. The firm bought EMC Holdings for 45 billion won.

Affirma Capital also exited Daelim Motorcycle, Daelim Motor, Hyundai Autoever, Samyang Packaging and AJ Networks in 2020. (Reporting by Hee-yeon Han)