Korean PE firm STIC taps Bain & Co senior partner for PE business

South Korean private equity firm STIC Investments Inc. is set to hire Lee Hyukjin, a senior partner of global management consulting firm Bain & Company, to strengthen its capabilities for large-scale merger and acquisition deals as it is creating a blind fund of 2 trillion won ($1.5 billion) to that end.

STIC, which manages $4.7 billion in assets, has tapped Lee as a partner for its PE business, according to industry sources on Thursday. Lee is scheduled to start working with Chai Jin Ho, STIC’s head of PE business, in May.

Lee, which has been with Bain & Company since 2003, provided consulting services on M&As in the industrial goods, energy and natural resources sectors while establishing strategies to maximize corporate value after the combinations.

STIC recruited Lee due to his wide networks within major conglomerates at home and abroad, as well as his capabilities in business operations. Lee is expected to work on not only the discovery of M&A targets and investments but also management strategies before and after acquisition deals.

MORE EXTERNAL EXPERTS IN LINE WITH GROWTH

The Kospi-listed PE firm, founded in 1999 as an investment company specializing in venture capital, has been expanding its business through growth capital – a type of PE investment in relatively mature companies – and mezzanine financing – a hybrid of debt and equity financing that gives the lender the right to convert the debt to an equity interest in the company in case of default. In 2019, it set up a fund of 1.2 trillion won to invest in management control.

STIC is currently establishing another fund with a target of some 2 trillion won, which will be mainly used for acquisitions of non-core businesses of major conglomerates.

The firm has been actively hiring external specialists since 2021 when it was listed. It scouted Seo Tong Kyu, a former head of Samil PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), as an executive managing partner. It also recruited Kim Jae Bum, an ex-chief of alternative investments at South Korea’s National Pension Service (NPS), the world’s third-largest such fund, as its investment strategy head.

STIC’s rivals are likely to follow suit, industry sources said.

“The local PE market has grown large enough to recruit highly paid specialists,” said one of the sources. “Experts in various sectors are likely to join the PE industry.”

Write to Dong-Hun Lee at leedh@hankyung.com
 
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.