이 기사는 2021년 09월 01일 08시12분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

Affinity Equity Partners is accelerating its partial exit from Serveone, after carrying out recapitalization on the company last year. This time the global private equity (PE) firm plans to carry out a reduction of share capital.

Serveone will acquire shares owned by its shareholders Affinity and S&I Corp, an affiliate of LG Group, on September 28, industry sources said on Monday. Then, the company will carry out a capital reduction. About 200 billion won ($173 million) will likely be given to shareholders, with Affinity, the largest shareholder, expected to retrieve 120 billion won.

The number of Serveone shares owned by Affinity will decrease from more than 1.2 million to 801,133 after the capital reduction. S&I Corp will hold 531,867 shares from 798,000 shares.

Serveone will buy shares owned by Affinity and S&I Corp at 300,000 won per share and scrap them, giving Affinity 120.2 billion won and S&I Corp 79.8 billion won.

The latest capital reduction is part of Affinity’s effort to make a partial exit from Serveone, according to a source familiar with the matter. Previously, Affinity bought Serveone’s management, repair and operation (MRO) business for about 600 billion won. The PE firm will retrieve more than one-sixth of the acquisition cost through the capital reduction.

The latest capital reduction is Affinity’s second partial exit after it recapitalized Serveone last year. The PE firm used 250 billion-won worth acquisition financing to fund the acquisition cost of 600 billion won in 2019. It increased the amount of acquisition financing to 450 billion won through the recapitalization last year.

Serveone’s liquidity is unlikely to be affected by the latest capital reduction thanks to its positive financial performance and solid cash flow this year. It still has approximately 100 billion won in net cash after the capital reduction.
Servone recorded cumulative revenue of 2.32 trillion won in the first half of this year, up 29.1% year-over-year. (Reporting by Gyoung-tae Kim)