JobKorea Sold to Hong Kong-Based Private Equity Fund

[Asia Economy Reporter Ji Yeon-jin] The online recruitment platform JobKorea is being sold to the Hong Kong-based private equity fund (PEF) Affinity Equity Partners (hereinafter Affinity).

According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 4th, H&Q, a domestic private equity fund management company and the major shareholder of JobKorea, selected Affinity as the preferred negotiation partner for the sale of JobKorea through the sale advisor Morgan Stanley.

The sale target is 100% of the shares held by H&Q, and the transaction amount is reported to be around 900 billion KRW.

In the acquisition battle for JobKorea, large private equity fund managers such as MBK Partners, CVC Capital, and TPG joined besides Affinity. It is known that Affinity was finally selected after competing with MBK in the final bidding.

H&Q is expected to sign a stock purchase agreement (SPA) with Affinity next week.

JobKorea is the number one online recruitment platform company in Korea, holding about 40% market share domestically. H&Q acquired 49.9% of JobKorea shares from Monster Worldwide in 2013 for about 95 billion KRW and then additionally purchased the remaining 50.1% for about 110 billion KRW in 2015.

JobKorea's sales increased from 75 billion KRW in 2016 to 105 billion KRW in 2019.