이 기사는 2021년 07월 27일 07시56분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

Private equity (PE) firm H&Q Korea is accelerating leadership overhaul of companies, which it invested through its fourth blind-pool fund.

H&Q conducted interviews with about 30 candidates, including finance and accounting experts, through a headhunting firm to hire chief financial officer (CFO) of H&Iruja since the beginning of this year, industry sources said Friday. Earlier this month, H&Q selected Oh Se-jin as the OLED production equipment manufacturer's new CFO.

Oh, who previously was in charge of finance operations at Kosdaq-listed Meere Company, is expected to join H&Iruja's board of directors in the future. It is said Oh’s career in the display equipment industry has made H&Q believe he was the right person for the job.

H&Q closed its fourth blind-pool fund in October 2020. The fund was launched about seven years after the PE firm closed its third blind-pool fund in 2013. H&Iruja was the first investment made from the fourth fund.

H&Q earlier this year invested in H&Iruja by acquiring 100 billion won ($86.7 million) worth of exchangeable bonds of H& Holdings, the largest shareholder of H&Iruja. The deal was reportedly led by Lee Jung-jin, managing director at H&Q. Lee Jung-jin and Lee Min-hoon, director at H&Q, serve as non-executive directors on the H&Iruja’s board.

The PE firm is also putting efforts into refining the system of peer-to-peer lending platform Lendit, the fourth fund’s second investment. H&Q invested 50.4 billion won earlier this month to purchase more than 3.1 million redeemable convertible preference shares issued by Lendit.

Managing directors at H&Q, Rhim Yu-chul and Lee Jong-won, were appointed as non-executive directors of Lendit earlier this month. Representatives of early investors in Lendit, including Han Kim, co-founder of Altos Ventures, resigned from the board of directors. (Reporting by Gyoung-tae Kim)