ADT Caps seeks about $300 mn in pre-IPO funding

ADT Caps Co., South Korea's No. 2 security services provider, is seeking to raise up to 400 billion won ($336 million) from private equity firms ahead of its initial public offering in 2022.

Its second-largest shareholder Macquarie Korea Infrastructure Fund plans to sell part of its shares in ADT Caps through the pre-IPO placement, according to investment banking sources on Oct. 6. Morgan Stanley is advising ADT on the pre-IPO share sale.

The funding round will also involve new shares in the company, 62.6% owned by the country's largest mobile carrier SK Telecom Co. and will result in selling about 10% of the company's enlarged share capital to a new investor.

SK Telecom values the securities services arm at over 4 trillion won, above its bigger rival  S-1 Corp.'s market capitalization of 3.2 trillion won as of Thursday's close. S-1, a unit of Samsung Group, commands 55% of the country's physical security market, trailed by ADT with about 30%.

Back in 2018, SK Telecom formed a consortium with Macquarie and two other domestic PE firms to acquire ADT Caps from The Carlyle Group for 2.97 trillion won. 

Macquarie, Keistone Partners and Daishin Private Equity hold a combined 37.4% stake in the Korean company. Their detailed ownership was not disclosed. 

ADT earlier this year has begun its process for an IPO, which was postponed to next year for unknown reasons. 

In March of this year, ADT Caps absorbed SK Infosec Co., a cybersecurity company, to expand its business beyond on-call physical security into the cloud infrastructure and digital realms.

"The results of this pre-IPO share sale will show how the market defines the company, either just as a security services provider, or a platform company," a PEF source told Market Insight. He had considered participating in the pre-IPO share deal.

"There are some cautions that its valuation suggested by SK Group is too demanding," he added.

Write to Jun-ho Cha at chacha@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article.