Hanwha Life Insurance was selected as the preferred bidder for the acquisition of Aequon Capital. With life insurance, non-life insurance, securities, asset management, and a savings bank under its belt, Hanwha Financial Group will add a capital company to its affiliates through this acquisition.
According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 29th, EQT Partners, the largest shareholder of Aequon Capital, selected Hanwha Life Insurance as the preferred buyer that day and notified the decision.
The sale target is EQT Partners' 96.06% equity in Aequon Capital. Aequon Capital owns 100% of Aequon Savings Bank, so the two companies are being sold as a package. The acquisition price is said to be around 1 trillion won.
At the end of last year, EQT Partners appointed Citigroup Global Markets Securities and UBS as lead managers and kicked off the Aequon Capital sale process in earnest. In the preliminary bidding in March, Hanwha Life Insurance, Meritz Financial, and Baikal Investment participated, and in the main bidding that ran through early this month, Hanwha Life Insurance and Meritz Financial jumped in.
Through this acquisition of Aequon Capital, Hanwha Life Insurance will increase its asset size by more than 10 trillion won while bolstering its corporate finance and investment banking capabilities. As of the end of last year, Aequon Capital is a capital company with total assets of 9 trillion won, and Aequon Savings Bank is a savings bank with assets of around 5 trillion won.