Buyout firm VIG Partners eyes private credit investing

South Korean private equity firm VIG Partners is eyeing private credit strategies with a new team it established Monday, the company said Tuesday.

The company, overseeing 3.8 trillion won ($3.4 billion) worth of private funds mainly dedicated to midmarket buyout strategies, added that it had hired Han Young-hwan as head of credit at VIG Partners. The credit arm will focus on special situations in private credit space, looking to take advantage of price dislocation in the belief that the debt asset’s price will rise.

Han was formerly executive director of Goldman Sachs’ Asian Special Situations Group and led special situations strategies in Korea. His latest deals range from a share purchase of cosmetics firm Carver Korea to nonbank loans to Coupang’s logistics centers in the Greater Seoul area.

The preemptive move is aimed at spearheading the private credit investing trend in Korea before deregulation comes into effect in October, VIG Partners said in a statement. Under the revised Capital Markets Act, all domestic private fund managers will be allowed to manage private debt funds in the country. PEFs here are not currently allowed to do so.

VIG Partners added that its credit investing operations would focus on opportunistic credit, largely through a hybrid of direct lending and redeemable preferred stock investing.

By Son Ji-hyoung (consnow@heraldcorp.com)