Kim & Chang is Korea’s leading law firm for private equity and other fund related matters. The depth and scale of our practice is unparalleled in Korea, and our lawyers have experience and know-how across a number of fund types.

Kim & Chang’s private equity group is an interdisciplinary practice composed of M&A, investment fund and tax practitioners. The Private Equity Practice is supported by lawyers and other advisors with extensive public and private sector experience, including former government officials and former directors and officers of multinational conglomerates. Our unique and diverse composition of professionals allows us to offer comprehensive and tailored solutions to the challenges faced by our private equity clients, ranging from on-shore and off-shore fund formation, fund registration, tax structuring, financing, outbound and inbound M&A and exit transactions. We regularly support all types of funds including investment, buy-out, and growth funds.

Our highly capable and deeply experienced team of lawyers offer one-stop legal services to our private equity clients on all aspects of fund operations and transactions, including:

• Tax structuring for fund formation • Fund registration under the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act; • Venture capital financing, including seed funding and growth funding rounds; • Inbound and outbound M&A transactions, including leveraged and going-private transactions; • exit transactions, including through IPOs, competitive bid auctions and privately negotiated deals; and • Acquisition financing.

Our Private Equity Practice regularly advises and represents local and global private equity funds active in the Korean market as well as Korean limited partners investing into overseas funds.

M&A Transactions

• Acquisition of ADT Caps by Macquarie Korea Opportunities Management - SK TELECOM • Acquisition of LS Mtron and LS Automotive by KKR • Sale of Halla Cement by Baring PE • Sale of Carver Korea by Bain Capital consortium • Acquisition of Modern House Home Living Business by MBK Partners • Acquisition of Hugel by Bain Capital • Acquisition of equity interest in Kakao Mobility by TPG Consortium • Acquisition of Daesung Industrial Gases by MBK Partners • Sale of Daesung Industrial Gases by PIA • Acquisition of Hyundai Cement by LK Investment and Hanil Cement • Sale of Kyungnam Energy by Anchor Equity Partners • Acquisition of ABLE C&C by IMM Private Equity • Acquisition of IFC by Brookfield Asset Management • Acquisition of Doosan Infracore’s machine tool business by MBK Partners • Acquisition of Hyundai Merchant Marine’s Bulk Business Department by H-Line Shipping, a portfolio company of Hahn & Company • Acquisition of Body Friend by VIG Fund • Acquisition of Ticket Monster by KKR and Anchor Equity Partners • Acquisition of Young Toys by PAG Asia Capital • Acquisition of Halla Visteon Climate Control by Hahn & Company • Acquisition and Sale of Tong Yang Life by VIG Fund. • Acquisition of Hyosung’s packaging performance unit by Standard Chartered Private Equity • Acquisition of Hanwha L&C by Morgan Stanley Private Equity • Acquisition of LNG transportation business of Hyundai Merchant Marine by IMM Private Equity and IMM Investment • Sale of Oriental Brewery by KKR and Affinity Equity Partners

Venture Capital

• Advised Soft Bank Ventures Korea in numerous transactions, including its sale of shares in Korbit, a cryptocurrency exchange and its investment in Tokopedia, an Indonesian company • Advised Qualcomm Ventures in its equity investments in Dunamu Inc. and Toss Lab, etc. • Advised Goldman Sachs PIA in its investment in Woowa Brothers • Advised Bagel Code in its Series C financing • Advised KCA Capital, a Singaporean-Chinese joint venture, in its equity investment in Cowin DST • Advised Mistletoe, a Japanese-Singaporean Venture Capital, in its investment in Classting • Advised Global Brain in equity acquisition of Warp Solution Inc. • Advised Samsung Venture Investment in its investment in Gojek Indonesia • Advised Shakr Media in its preferred shares financing from Walden SKT Venture Fund, L.P • Advised Alibaba in its equity investment of Bankware Global • Advised Keytone Ventures in its equity investment in Innospark Inc. • Advised Applied Ventures in its Series B RCPS investment in TG Optoelectronics Technology Corporation • Advised Applied Materials in its equity investment in Iones • Advised Kamur Partners in its equity investment in Pixelplus • Advised Cisco International and Hanwha Investment in their acquisition of shares in N3N • Advised SkyLake in its acquisition of equity interest in Yanolja

Fund Formation

• Onshore PEF formation of Macquarie Korea Opportunities Management, MBK Partners, STIC Investments, Standard Chartered Private Equity, IMM Private Equity, VIG Partners, Unison Capital, Hahn & Company • Offshore private fund formation of Anchor Equity Partners, Softbank Ventures Asia • Formation of various types of collective investment vehicles such as investment trusts and venture capital funds