Daesang Group Completes $340 Billion Acquisition of US Logistics Company... Second Son-in-Law's Connections Worked

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Soyeon] Guk Yoojin, CEO of Blackstone's Korea operations, the world's largest private equity firm, is drawing attention for facilitating a cross-border deal involving the Daesang Group, where he is the son-in-law.

According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 19th, UTC Investment and Forest Partners recently acquired Traffix, a logistics company in the Americas, for approximately 340 billion KRW. It is reported that UTC Investment initially pursued the acquisition and then proposed a joint acquisition with Forest Partners. UTC Investment is an asset management firm wholly owned by Lim Sangmin, Executive Director of Daesang and the second daughter of the Daesang Group and wife of CEO Guk.

It is known that CEO Guk's global network played a key role in the completion of this deal. A senior official from a domestic institution hinted, "CEO Guk had an acquaintance at Traffix, which helped the deal go smoothly." It is reported that CEO Guk has a high school acquaintance at the acquired company, Traffix.

Having studied abroad and built a career in global private equity, CEO Guk boasts an extensive network. Born in Canada, he graduated from Seoul Foreign School. After graduating from the University of Chicago with a degree in economics, he completed an MBA at Harvard Business School. He then gained about three years of experience at JP Morgan starting in 2006. Later, he moved to the private equity industry, working at The Carlyle Group and KKR before joining Blackstone in 2014. He married Executive Director Lim Sangmin, who is five years his senior, in 2015 while working at Blackstone's New York headquarters.

Traffix is a large logistics company providing integrated logistics services in North America, including the United States and Canada. It is expected to serve as an exclusive logistics company in Daesang Group's North American business expansion. Daesang Holdings recently raised 45 billion KRW in cash by selling the management rights of Chorokmaeul. By reinvesting this into Traffix, it is anticipated to create synergies with food businesses in North America, such as a large kimchi factory in Los Angeles.

In addition to major strategic investors (SIs) such as LX Pantos and Daesang Holdings, numerous domestic investment institutions participated as financial investors (FIs) in the project fund for acquiring Traffix. Daesang Holdings and LX Pantos invested 20 billion KRW and 31.1 billion KRW respectively in the UTC Investment private equity fund (PEF) and Forest Partners PEF, becoming key investors.