이 기사는 2021년 12월 14일 08:04 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

Macquarie Korea Asset Management has agreed to acquire roughly a 60% stake in S&I Atxpert in a deal that marks the second deal between the Australia-headquartered firm and an affiliate of South Korea’s LG Group.

The deal, worth approximately 364 billion won ($309 million), was signed on Friday, according to industry sources.

This is the second deal that the investment firm has struck with an affiliate of LG. In 2019 the firm acquired 35% of information technology solutions company LG CNS for about 1 trillion won.

Macquarie will use its fifth South Korean infrastructure fund, Macquarie Korea Opportunities Fund V, for about half of the acquisition cost, with the remainder expected to be funded through debt financing. The fund closed at 650 billion won earlier this year.

S&I Atxpert was split off in October from S&I Corp, one of LG Corp’s subsidiaries. The Seoul-based company, which provides facility management services, generates annual revenue of 600 billion won, or about 30% of S&I Corp’s total revenue, and annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of 40 billion won on average.

LG Corp, LG Group’s holding company, offloaded the business as part of a proactive response to the country’s tightened rules on a conglomerate’s intercompany transactions. The holding company is also in talks to sell S&I Corp’s construction unit, which was split off earlier this year, to GS Engineering & Construction.

Macquarie is said to have studied S&I Corp’s facility management unit for over a year. Its expertise and presence in the infrastructure sector helped the firm beat other competitors in the bidding process for the business.

Other investments the firm made in South Korea this year include regional gas suppliers Haeyang Energy and Seorabeol City Gas and the country’s biggest hydrogen producer Deokyang. (Reporting by Ha-na Suh)