This article was posted on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 9:56 a.m. on Nov. 18, 2025.
Private equity firm JKL Partners is set to acquire management control of Leon, a semiconductor process consumables company, from HES Capital Partners. JKL Partners, which recently acquired management control of the bakery brand London Bagel Museum, is accelerating the deployment of a large blind fund.
According to investment banking industry sources on the 18th, JKL Partners recently signed a stock purchase agreement (SPA) to acquire management control of Leon. It plans to complete financing and close the transaction within the year. The acquisition target is 92% of Leon's equity held by HES Capital Partners.
JKL Partners valued Leon's total enterprise value at about 180 billion won. JKL Partners plans to use part of its sixth blind fund, sized at 970 billion won raised this year, and arrange acquisition financing to fund the purchase price. It is reported to have already received a letter of credit (LOC) for acquisition financing.
Founded in 2007, Leon manufactures consumables such as membranes used in chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), a semiconductor process, and supplies them to global equipment makers. CMP is a process that flattens the surface of a semiconductor wafer. With the advent of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and the growing importance of stacking DRAM vertically, technologies for finely polishing chips have been drawing attention.
Just before HES Capital Partners acquired it, Leon posted sales of 11.6 billion won and operating profit of 3.3 billion won in 2018. After selling work began, sales grew to 17.6 billion won and operating profit to 8.9 billion won in 2024. Over the same period, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose from 4.2 billion won to 10 billion won.
HES Capital acquired Leon through the Ryan PEF, formed in December 2018 with 18.8 billion won. As of the end of 2023, five years had passed since the fund's formation and the PEF was in liquidation, and the sale process has been underway since last year. The sell-side adviser is KR&Partners.