EQT Partners, a private equity fund (PEF) manager under Sweden's Wallenberg group, has decided to buy all remaining free-float shares after acquiring the largest shareholder's equity in DOUZONE BIZON CO., investing about 2.2 trillion won. After the tender offer ends, it plans to proceed with a voluntary delisting.
According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 22nd, Doronicum, a special purpose company (SPC) established by EQT Partners to acquire DOUZONE BIZON CO., will launch a tender offer for 18,158,974 shares of DOUZONE BIZON CO. (57.69% of the total number of shares on a fully diluted basis) (related article☞ [Exclusive] EQT Partners proposes 120,000 won per share for DOUZONE BIZON CO.… SPA possible at the end of this month along with a tender offer).
The tender offer price is 120,000 won per share, a premium of about 25% over the previous trading day's closing price and the same price EQT Partners paid when acquiring the largest shareholder's equity. The total tender offer consideration is about 217.9 billion won. The tender offer period is 30 days from the 23rd of this month to Mar. 24. NH Investment & Securities is acting as the manager.
In Nov. last year, EQT Partners acquired a 34.85% management-control equity stake in DOUZONE BIZON CO. from Chairman Kim Yong-woo, the No. 1 and No. 2 shareholder of DOUZONE BIZON CO., and Shinhan Financial for about 1.3158 trillion won. This recognized a corporate value of about 3.6 trillion won.
If this tender offer succeeds, EQT Partners will purchase all potential free-float shares excluding treasury shares, raising its equity stake in DOUZONE BIZON CO. to 92.52%. It then plans to make DOUZONE BIZON CO. a wholly owned subsidiary of Doronicum and pursue a voluntary delisting.
EQT Partners said it plans to buy all shares tendered regardless of the tender rate.
Founded in 1991, DOUZONE BIZON CO. develops and supplies business-to-business (B2B) software, including enterprise resource planning (ERP). More than 60% of its revenue comes from ERP. Last year's revenue was 446.2 billion won, with operating profit of 127.7 billion won.