This article was published on Aug. 13, 2025, at 1:05 p.m. on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove site.
Private equity fund manager KL&partners (hereafter referred to as KL&Partners) is pursuing refinancing for its portfolio company, the hamburger franchise Mom's Touch. The scale is expected to be around 560 billion won. With improvements in performance resulting in increased dividend capacity, it appears that they are seeking to recover their investment through refinancing.
According to investment banking (IB) industry sources on the 13th, KL&Partners has selected Shinhan Investment Corp. as the lead arranger and is preparing for the refinancing of Mom's Touch. The scale is about 560 billion won, including recapitalization, and the interest rate is reported to be around 5.4%.
Mom's Touch has increased the scale of its refinancing by 40% compared to the 400 billion won refinancing conducted last September. The interest rate is expected to decrease from the 6% range to 5.4%. KL&Partners is reportedly returning more than 70% of the investors' (LP) funds through the refinancing conducted last year.
The purpose of this refinancing is to recover the investment made by KL&Partners in Mom's Touch through dividends as well as paying off existing acquisition financing. KL&Partners acquired approximately 56.8% equity in Mom's Touch for 193.8 billion won in 2019. After delisting Korea F&B Holdings, the special purpose corporation (SPC) that held Mom's Touch, in 2022, KL&Partners completely owned 100% equity by retiring 2,079,635 shares of its treasury stock.
Mom's Touch is a domestic corporation established in 2004 and is a latecomer in the hamburger franchise industry. However, by emphasizing reasonable prices, it has steadily increased the number of its stores to over 1,400, maintaining an upward trend in performance and enhancing its corporate value. Following the acquisition by KL&Partners, Mom's Touch's sales grew from 288.8 billion won in 2019 to 417.8 billion won in 2024. During the same period, operating profit increased nearly fourfold from 19 billion won to 73.4 billion won.
KL&Partners prepared to sell Mom's Touch in 2022, but withdrew the sale due to tightened funding markets from interest rate hikes and decreased interest in food and beverage businesses. They plan to raise the company's value by solidifying overseas operations and then resume the sale. Last year, they opened a direct store in Shibuya, Japan, and are set to open a second direct store in Harajuku this September.