[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] HLB Group is making a 30 billion KRW investment in PSMC, a manufacturer of lead frames, an essential component in semiconductors, becoming the largest shareholder.
On the 1st, HLB announced through a public disclosure that it will acquire 20 billion KRW worth of existing and new shares of PSMC. In addition to HLB, major group affiliates including HLB Life Science, HLB Pharmaceutical, HLB Therapeutics, HLB Investment, and Notus made an additional investment of 10 billion KRW. Once all procedures are completed, HLB Group will secure approximately 28.25% of PSMC’s shares, becoming the largest shareholder.
PSMC is a company that produces lead frames, metal substrates used for chip attachment in the semiconductor assembly process. In addition to supplying lead frames for existing home appliances and memory semiconductors, it is expanding its business into the automotive electronics semiconductor sector. Its major clients include global automotive semiconductor companies such as Hyundai Mobis, Fuji, and Infineon.
The HLB Group explained that the background of this acquisition of PSMC is a strategy to strengthen PSMC’s existing business as well as to support HLB’s new drug development. HLB is implementing a liquidity enhancement and risk diversification strategy in which multiple affiliates jointly share costs and share the benefits to secure funds necessary for expanding its new drug pipeline. The company receiving the funds takes responsibility for the development of the respective new drug after confirming the pipeline.
HLB plans to raise the necessary funds for developing cell therapies such as next-generation chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T, a key pipeline within the group, through this acquisition of PSMC. Since continuous funding is required for cell therapy development, HLB intends to support new drug development through PSMC, which has a stable business structure.
A company official stated, “Shareholders have repeatedly expressed reluctance about HLB continuously bearing various new drug development costs, and we believe there is some validity to these opinions,” adding, “Ultimately, the business is being conducted in a way that acquires companies responsible for developing individual pipelines responsibly, minimizing HLB’s support while leading value growth.”
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