This article was displayed on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) website at 5:24 p.m. on Feb. 20, 2026.
Hillhouse Capital, which is pursuing the acquisition of IGIS Asset Management, has once again joined hands with global investment bank (IB) Deutsche Bank. The two worked in sync last year on the tender offer for Japanese real estate developer Samty Holdings, and this time they are in the same boat as they proceed with the acquisition steps in an M&A deal in Korea. The due diligence for the acquisition of IGIS Asset Management is said to be almost complete.
According to the IB industry on the 20th, Hillhouse is on the verge of signing a stock purchase agreement (SPA) to acquire management control of IGIS Asset Management for about 1.1 trillion won. Financial and legal due diligence is nearly finished, and there appear to be no changes related to the sale price.
In this M&A, Hillhouse tapped Deutsche Bank as its acquisition adviser. Deutsche Bank is regarded as Europe's largest IB. The global M&A institutional sector is currently led by Samuel Kim, who is of Korean descent. After moving from Morgan Stanley to Deutsche Bank in 2023, Kim took the role of head of Asia-Pacific M&A, and in 2024 he was appointed head of the Korea office.
This is not the first collaboration between Hillhouse and Deutsche Bank. When Hillhouse acquired Japan's Samty Holdings through a tender offer last year, Deutsche Bank served as the lead manager.
Earlier, in 2021, when Hillhouse acquired Philips' small home appliance business, Deutsche Bank also served as joint lead manager and acquisition financing arranger. At the time, the size of the acquisition financing term loan provided by Deutsche Bank was €850 million (about 1.4 trillion won).
Hillhouse and Deutsche Bank have also worked together in the private credit market. In 2024, Deutsche Bank arranged a $2 billion private loan secured by collateral of equity in a subsidiary of China's Bohai Lease, and Hillhouse's "Elham Credit Partners" participated as a key limited partner (LP).
In addition, Hillhouse directly hired core talent from Deutsche Bank. In 2023, it named Siddhartha Hari—who had overseen financing in the North Asia and Pacific regions at Deutsche Bank—as co-head of the credit institutional sector.
Deutsche Bank's name does not come up often in Korea's M&A market. However, it has occasionally made its presence felt as a lead manager in cross-border (transactions conducted across borders) transactions involving domestic corporations, and with a former head of the Korea office now leading the global M&A institutional sector, some expect it to widen its stride in the domestic market going forward.
In 2024, when Blackstone sold domestic pharmaceutical distribution corporations GeoYoung to MBK Partners for 2 trillion won, Deutsche Bank jointly arranged the sale with Morgan Stanley.
Last year, when Indonesia's Sampoerna Group sold "Sampoerna Agro" to POSCO International, Deutsche Bank served as the sell-side adviser. When Air Liquide acquired DIG Airgas from Macquarie Asset Management, it was listed as the buy-side lead manager.