This article was displayed on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 8:41 a.m. on Mar. 12, 2026.
Recently, some in the market raised the view that SK shieldus could spin off and sell its cyber (information) security business unit. With talk that the current largest shareholder, global private equity firm EQT Partners, could soon move to recoup its investment (exit), the suggestion is that it is reviewing a plan to sell only the cyber security unit while keeping the physical security business.
However, EQT is not understood to have actually initiated procedures related to this. Industry officials said EQT could take a tax hit if it immediately proceeds with a carve-out sale of SK shieldus, and they analyze that the rumor of a split sale is not realistic at this point. That said, SK shieldus' subsidiary CaptSec is reportedly being reviewed for a potential sale.
According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 12th, EQT has not yet carried out separate procedures regarding a split sale of SK shieldus' cyber security business unit.
The market cites as the backdrop for this split-sale rumor the high-priced sale of an Australian cyber security company. Australia's CyberCX was reportedly sold to Accenture last month for 1 billion Australian dollars (about 1 trillion won). At about 2.6 times annual revenue, it was granted a significantly high valuation given that typical revenue multiples for cyber security service companies are 1 to 1.5 times.
In response, EQT is also said to have asked some IBs to assess what valuation SK shieldus' cyber security institutional sector could receive. However, it is said that it has not begun concrete procedures such as an internal review committee for a split sale.
IB industry officials view a split sale of SK shieldus as a scenario with little feasibility for now. The biggest reason is "taxes." If EQT carves out and sells the cyber security institutional sector, it would be hard to avoid tax penalties.
Earlier, at the end of last year, SK shieldus merged with its parent, special purpose company (SPC) Korea Security Holdings (KSH). Initially, EQT controlled SK shieldus through KSH. But if it were to pursue an exit (investment recovery) in that structure, the sale proceeds would pass through KSH, triggering corporate tax on capital gains, and when the remaining funds were distributed to EQT as dividends, dividend income tax would be levied again, creating a double taxation issue.
EQT is said to have carried out a reverse merger to absorb KSH into SK shieldus to avoid this double taxation and receive the sale proceeds directly. It simplified the ownership structure to "EQT fund → SK shieldus." The industry speculates that in the process EQT likely received a deferral of book merger taxes (qualified merger tax deferral) on the condition that it would "maintain the business as is going forward" (post-management requirement).
The problem is that if it splits off and sells the information security institutional sector right now, the carefully crafted tax-saving structure would unravel. If the cyber security business is carved out under SK shieldus as a subsidiary (physical split) and sold, the sale proceeds would first flow into the SK shieldus corporation.
Then SK shieldus would have to pay corporate tax on the profit from selling the subsidiary, and when the remaining money is upstreamed to the EQT fund, tax would be withheld again in the name of dividend tax. Having eliminated the middle layer (SPC) to pay tax only once, it would revert to a structure of paying tax twice the moment it proceeds with a subsidiary-form split sale.
Problems remain even if it opts for a spin-off rather than a physical split. Because Korea Security Holdings (KSH) was the 100% parent of SK shieldus, the reverse merger itself is exempt from post-management (retroactive tax collection), but there are concerns that a tax bomb could go off at the split stage.
Under the current tax code, to be recognized as a "qualified partitioning" that splits a company without tax burden, existing shareholders must meet the "equity continuity" requirement, meaning they must hold the new split entity's shares without selling them for a certain period. In other words, even if the business is split, the National Tax Service exceptionally grants tax benefits if those shares are held and not sold.
But it is different if a sale is made immediately after a spin-off. The moment the equity is sold, the equity continuity that underpins the exception breaks, and it can be deemed a "non-qualified partitioning." In that case, the surviving company that transferred the asset (SK shieldus) would owe substantial corporate tax on the asset transfer gains.
Complex rights relationships among shareholders are another factor making a split sale of SK shieldus complicated. Currently, SK shieldus has a structure in which the largest shareholder EQT (68%) and the second-largest shareholder SK Square (32%) split the equity, and drag-along and tag-along rights are tightly intertwined between the two sides.
EQT has the right, if its proposal for SK Square to acquire its equity is rejected, to bundle-sell to a third party, including SK Square's equity. Conversely, when EQT sells its equity, SK Square is also guaranteed the right to demand that its equity be sold on the same terms.
An industry official said, "There are specific conditions for exercising drag-along and tag-along rights, and I understand they are set in several ways favorable to SK Square," adding, "Even if EQT wants a split sale, reaching an agreement with SK Square in advance is essential."
EQT's conservative internal decision-making structure also plays a role. A private equity official said, "At EQT, clearing the committee that decides on capital recovery is known to be more difficult than passing the investment review committee (IC) that decides on investments."
That said, in the case of CaptSec, a subsidiary of SK shieldus, EQT is reportedly considering an actual sale.
CaptSec is a company 100% owned by SK shieldus. It was established in 2005 when the manpower security business institutional sector of the former ADT Caps was spun off. Its valuation is estimated at around 100 billion won.