This article was displayed on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 8:17 a.m. on Oct. 17, 2025.
Venture capital (VC) T.S. Investment has begun exiting its investment in apparel original equipment manufacturer (OEM) specialist C-Site. It has been about six years since it injected about 32 billion won and acquired control at the end of 2019. However, due to weak share prices, the recovery results are expected to be limited.
According to the financial investment industry on the 17th, T.S. Investment recently set a policy to recover its investment in C-Site and began selling its shares on the market. First, on the 29th of last month it sold 126,000 shares, about 4% of its total holdings (3.25 million shares), on the market at 10,150 won per share, recovering about 1.3 billion won.
C-Site is an apparel OEM specialist founded in 1999. Global fashion brands such as Gap (GAP), H&M (H&M) and American Eagle (AEO) are major clients, and on a consolidation basis last year it posted 173.9 billion won in sales and 1.2 billion won in operating profit. Net profit was estimated at about 200 million won.
T.S. Investment became the new owner of C-Site at the end of 2019. It highly valued the steady performance improvement based on global clients and acquired a 75% controlling equity stake held by founder Kim Sang-gi and others for about 32 billion won, becoming C-Site's largest shareholder.
It is interpreted that T.S. Investment has begun recovering its investment ahead of a fund maturity. T.S. Investment used the "T.S. 2018-12 M&A investment partnership" formed in December 2018 to acquire control of C-Site, and the fund's term of existence (eight years) expires at the end of next year.
T.S. Investment had earlier expected a big exit from C-Site. It acquired C-Site valuing the total equity at about 41 billion won at roughly 8,300 won per share, and C-Site listed on the KOSDAQ at a valuation of 64 billion won through a merger with NH Special Purpose Acquisition 28 Company at the end of 2023. Market capitalization once exceeded 250 billion won.
However, there are prospects that T.S. Investment's recovery results will be limited at this point. The apparel OEM industry's slowdown and customers' inventory adjustments caused the share price — which listed on KOSDAQ at a reference price (SPAC merger listing) of 30,000 won and even topped 44,000 won per share — to plunge recently to around 7,000 won.
There are expectations that even recovering the principal will not be easy. When the stock was at about 20,000 won last June, it disposed of some non-lockup shares (500,000 shares) through after-hours trading and recovered about 10 billion won, but if the share price falls further the value of the remaining equity could drop below 20 billion won.
As of the 29th of last month, T.S. Investment held 3,124,000 C-Site shares (a 53.52% stake) through the T.S. 2018-12 M&A investment partnership. If it sold all remaining shares at the closing price of 7,130 won that day, T.S. Investment's potential recovery amount for the remaining equity is expected to be about 22.3 billion won.
In that case, T.S. Investment's final recovery amount from C-Site would be 34.5 billion won. Assuming final recovery is completed next year, the annualized internal rate of return (IRR) is expected to be about 1.54%. The real IRR reflecting inflation and expenses during the investment period is effectively negative (-).
T.S. Investment may not be able to keep the management stability pledge it submitted to the Korea Exchange when promoting C-Site's listing. At the time, T.S. Investment said it would ensure that an individual or corporation would become the largest shareholder when selling shares, but it has recently conducted market sales to unspecified shareholders.
T.S. Investment judged that it would not be easy to sell its controlling equity in C-Site in one block to an individual or corporation. This is because the apparel OEM industry's slowdown and worsening performance continue. If T.S. Investment sells all its equity on the market, the largest shareholder would change to current second-largest shareholder Kim Sang-gi, who holds 21.42%.
An investment banking industry official said, "I understand T.S. Investment chose to sell its equity gradually while watching share price conditions instead of selling all shares to a specific individual or corporation," adding, "If the share price rises, the strategy is likely to recover as much capital as possible by selling little by little."