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Logos of Shinhan Financial Group and Neoplux |
Shinhan Financial Group signed a deal to acquire a controlling stake in Neoplux, Doosan’s investment arm, for 73 billion won ($61.4 million), a filing showed Thursday.
The transaction between Shinhan and the conglomerate‘s holding firm Doosan Co. is set to close by Sept. 29. As a result, Shinhan will control a 96.77 percent stake in Neoplux.
The news comes a month after Shinhan was picked as the preferred bidder for the takeover in late July.
Neoplux was founded in 2000, and has since been dedicated to venture capital and private equity investment. The investment house was overseeing some 784 billion won worth of assets as of end-2019, according to the Financial Supervisory Service. Its portfolio firms include massage chair maker Bodyfriend, biotech firm SCM Lifescience and shared workspace operator FastFive.
This is the second binding agreement to materialize amid a self-rescue plan of debt-saddled Doosan Group. Earlier in August, Doosan sold a golf course to an investor group composed of builder Moamiraedo and Hana Financial Group. Doosan is also in talks to sell other assets, such as copper foil maker arm Doosan Solus, apartment builder Doosan Engineering & Construction, machinery manufacturing unit Doosan Infracore and properties such as a headquarters building in Seoul,
The normalization plan comes in exchange for 3 trillion won worth of financial packages from state-run lenders such as the Korea Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of Korea since March, in addition to 600 billion won worth of bonds converted to loans.
Shinhan Financial Group is holding firm of Korea‘s leading banking group, which owns Shinhan Bank. The banking group has yet to control a venture capital company.
By Son Ji-hyoung (
consnow@heraldcorp.com)
