This article was displayed on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 3:19 p.m. on Jul. 3, 2026.
Korea Investment Private Equity (Hantoo PE) completed the first closing of its core minerals and energy supply chain stabilization fund. Coming on the heels of wrapping up a transaction to acquire equity in SK Group power generation assets, it has also secured an investment platform in the supply chain and energy sectors, signaling a tilt toward non-control investments tailored to growth capital for corporations and demand in strategic industries, rather than large buyouts.
According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 3rd, Hantoo PE recently finished the first closing of the core minerals and energy supply chain stabilization fund. The size is about 128 billion won. The anchor limited partner is The Export-Import Bank of Korea. Early this year, Hantoo PE, together with BNW Investment, was selected as a delegated manager for the Ministry of Economy and Finance's supply chain stabilization fund.
Hantoo PE plans to complete the final closing of the blind fund between late September and October. The final fund size is said to be in the 200 billion to 300 billion won range. However, the fund's significance lies less in its standalone size and more in serving as a primer for future project funds. The structure is to commit a portion of capital from the blind fund and then raise separate co-investment or parallel project funds to invest in overseas core minerals, energy infrastructure, and strategic assets.
Hantoo PE plans to form at least one project fund worth several hundred billion won within the year. Because core minerals and energy-related transactions typically involve single-investment sizes ranging from several hundred billion won to the trillion-won level, rather than investing solely from the blind fund, a likely approach is to create project funds for each deal and attach them alongside.
The recently concluded power generation asset transaction is seen in the same vein. At the end of last month, Hantoo PE, together with Stick Alternative Investment Management, completed a transaction to acquire 49% equity in Ulsan GPS and SK Multi-Utility (SK MU) for about 1.6 trillion won. Ulsan GPS is an LNG combined-cycle power plant, and SK MU is SK Group's energy utility asset. It is a case of supplying large-scale capital to a minority equity sale pursued by SK Group to secure funding for new businesses such as artificial intelligence (AI) data centers.
Hantoo PE also participated in a roughly 1.2 trillion won investment in SK On convertible preferred shares (CPS) in 2023. At a time when SK On moved to raise large-scale capital to expand battery production capacity, it provided liquidity. Late last year, it also led a minority equity transaction of about 1.1 trillion won in Hanwha Energy. It is continuing trillion-won-level investments in areas that require massive funding, such as expanding battery production capacity, reshaping energy infrastructure, and securing core minerals.
This dovetails with changing investment methods in Korea's private equity (PE) market. The domestic PE market has grown centered on buyout transactions that acquire control and then lift corporate value before selling. Recently, however, there has been an increase in transactions that supply long-term capital to corporations through minority equity investments or investments in infrastructure-type assets.
These changes are prominent in industries that require large-scale, preemptive investment, such as batteries, energy, and core minerals. In these fields, the initial investment burden is heavy and the time to recover capital is long, making it difficult to rely solely on individual corporations' own fundraising.
An IB industry official said, "If PE's competitiveness once lay in financial firepower, now the core strength is the ability to efficiently supply the capital corporations need in line with industrial changes and to design investment structures."