Valenbry Private Equity Acquires SK Shieldus... Vice Chairman Park Jung-ho Announces at MWC

[Barcelona=Asia Economy Reporter Oh Su-yeon] EQT Partners, a global private equity fund (PEF) management firm affiliated with the Swedish Wallenberg Group, will acquire the management rights of SK Square subsidiary SK Shielders. Park Jung-ho, Vice Chairman of SK Square, is scheduled to hold a briefing at the Mobile World Congress (MWC2023) starting on the 27th (local time) in Barcelona, Spain, to announce this.

EQT Partners is expected to sign a contract this week to purchase about 33% of SK Square’s stake (63.10%), the largest shareholder of SK Shielders, and the entire 36.87% stake held by the second-largest shareholder, the Macquarie Infrastructure Asset Management consortium. EQT Partners has been in discussions to acquire SK Shielders’ shares since last year.

Park Jung-ho, Vice Chairman of SK Square.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

The transaction size amounts to approximately 3 trillion KRW. SK Shielders’ corporate value was evaluated at the high 40 trillion to 50 trillion KRW level, including total shares and net borrowings (2 trillion KRW).

After the contract is signed, EQT Partners will become the largest shareholder holding about 70% of the shares, and SK Square will hold about 30%, becoming the second-largest shareholder. EQT Partners and SK Square are expected to jointly manage SK Shielders. The plan is to develop SK Shielders into Asia’s largest security platform.