The sale of Green Eco Solution, a waste unit subsidiary of Ssangyong C&E being pursued by Hahn & Company, has narrowed to a two-way race between No & Partners and Korea Investment Private Equity (PE).
According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 13th, Hahn & Company recently shortlisted No & Partners and Korea Investment PE as qualified preliminary bidders for the acquisition of Green Eco Solution. The sell-side adviser is Samil PwC.
The asset for sale is 100% equity in Green Eco Solution held by Ssangyong C&E. Green Eco Solution is an intermediate holding company in charge of Ssangyong C&E's environmental business institutional sector and manages subsidiaries engaged in the collection and transportation of waste such as waste synthetic resins and in raw material recycling.
Green Eco Solution currently has three subsidiaries under it: Green Eco Cycle, Green Eco Nexus, and Green Eco Logics. These subsidiaries are also said to be included in the assets for sale. Green Eco Solution was established in 2021 under the name "Green Vein" and later changed to its current name.
The sale price is expected to exceed 400 billion won. Green Eco Solution's EBITDA last year was about 30 billion won, reflecting an EBITDA multiple of about 12 to 15 times. As EBITDA is expected to rise year over year this year, the transaction amount could be higher.
Hahn & Company has been restructuring in recent years by selling Ssangyong C&E subsidiaries. In 2023, it sold Ssangyong Remicon to Jeongseon Aggregate Group, and last year it disposed of Ssangyong Basic Materials, a subsidiary that manufactures and sells slag cement.
In 2016, Hahn & Company acquired a 46.15% equity stake in Ssangyong Cement, the predecessor of Ssangyong C&E, from creditors including Korea Development Bank for about 883.7 billion won, and then bought an additional 32.36% held by Taiheiyo Cement of Japan, raising its stake to about 78%. It has since expanded its business scale by successively adding Daehan Cement, Hannam Cement, Seongkwang Entec, Taebong Industrial, and Samho Environmental Technology.