VIG Partners Sells 'Foodist' to Sajo Group

Domestic Food Ingredient Distribution Company with Sales of 1 Trillion KRW
Expected to Recover More Than Twice the Investment Principal

Private equity firm VIG Partners announced on the 24th that it has signed a stock purchase agreement to sell 99.86% of its controlling shares in Foodist through the VIG 3rd Fund to the Sajo Group.

In March 2018, VIG acquired Winplus, a food ingredient mart business, and in February 2020, merged the food ingredient distribution and group catering division of Hanwha Hotels & Resorts to complete the current Foodist.

Despite the overall economic downturn caused by COVID-19, Foodist has recorded an average annual sales growth rate of about 19% since the 2020 merger, achieving sales of 1.0291 trillion KRW last year.

The total transaction amount for this deal is approximately 250 billion KRW. Upon completion of the transaction in August, VIG is expected to recover more than twice its invested principal by combining the proceeds from dividends and refinancing.

This sale marks the second investment recovery case for the 3rd Fund, which was established in 2016 with approximately 700 billion KRW in scale. So far, VIG has steadily recovered investments through the sale of Starvision, a leading domestic beauty contact lens company, as well as minority stake sales and refinancing of other portfolio companies within the 3rd Fund.

VIG plans to further accelerate the investment recovery process of the 3rd Fund starting with this sale.