This article was displayed on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 2:57 p.m. on Aug. 3, 2026.
Private equity fund (PEF) manager KCA Partners will acquire information and communications infrastructure contractor SK TNS. KCA Partners formed a consortium with F2 Telecom, a partner of SK Telecom, to join the bidding and was selected as the final acquirer over the Pantech C&I consortium, which had also been named a preferred bidder.
According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 3rd, Alchemist, the PEF manager and largest shareholder of SK TNS, and KCA Partners signed a stock purchase agreement (SPA) that day to transfer control of SK TNS. The asset for sale is 100% equity in SK TNS held by Alchemist through a special purpose company (SPC).
In the market, the sale price discussed for SK TNS is in the upper mid-300 billion won to 400 billion won range. The sale price under the SPA signed that day also appears to be at a similar level.
This acquisition battle came down to two sides: KCA Partners and the Pantech C&I–EGIS Investment Partners consortium. The seller selected the two candidates as multiple preferred negotiation partners in June and continued talks comparing price and the likelihood of closing the transaction. In industry practice, selecting multiple preferred bidders was considered highly unusual.
In this acquisition, KCA Partners was said to have earned high marks for bringing in F2 Telecom, a network build-out partner of SK Telecom, as a strategic investor (SI). Because SK Group affiliates such as SK Telecom and SK Broadband account for a large share of SK TNS revenue, the participation of F2 Telecom, which has existing transaction relationships, was seen as supporting business stability after the acquisition.
KCA Partners is an institution-only private equity manager established in 2019. It is led by CEO Kwon Il-hwan, formerly of McKinsey and Qualcomm Ventures. It has mainly invested in technology companies such as Rebellions, SungEel HiTech, and ALMAC.
SK TNS is an information and communications infrastructure contractor established in 2015 when the telecommunications business institutional sector of SK Construction, the predecessor of SK ecoplant, was spun off. It focuses on building mobile networks such as base stations, repeaters, and optical lines, and has expanded into data center power infrastructure, fuel cells, energy storage systems (ESS), and solar facility construction.
Last year's revenue was 718.6 billion won, down from 780.4 billion won the previous year. However, it generates 30 billion to 40 billion won in operating profit annually and held more than 150 billion won in cash as of the end of 2024, which was seen as a strength for stable cash generation.
Alchemist acquired 100% equity in SK TNS from SK ecoplant in 2021 for about 282.6 billion won. It used a project fund in the 200 billion won range and acquisition financing, and SK ecoplant, the seller at the time, also committed about 60 billion won to the fund. If the transaction closes as planned, Alchemist will recoup its SK TNS investment in about five years since the acquisition.