The independent tank upper is placed at the HYUNDAI HYMS Daebul 2 Plant. /Courtesy of Ogi-hwan Kim

The private equity fund (PEF) operator J&Private Equity (PE) has officially begun the sale process of HYUNDAI HYMS. HYUNDAI HYMS's stock price has risen more than 40% since the beginning of the year, aided by the boom in the shipbuilding industry.

According to investment banking (IB) industry sources on the 20th, J&PE, the largest shareholder of HYUNDAI HYMS, has recently appointed NH Investment & Securities and Samil as the sale's lead managers.

HYUNDAI HYMS primarily engages in the production of ship blocks as a shipbuilding materials company. A ship block is a unit that divides a ship into several compartments. Typically, dozens to hundreds of ship blocks are stacked to build one ship.

J&PE previously acquired a 75% stake in HYUNDAI HYMS from HD Hyundai Heavy Industries in 2019. The acquisition price was 100 billion won. Since then, from 2019 to 2022, they received dividends of 26.3 billion won, and last January, during the listing of HYUNDAI HYMS, they recovered 25.4 billion won through the sale of existing shares. Additionally, in March, they secured an acquisition financing of 81.5 billion won using their 53% stake in HYUNDAI HYMS as collateral to receive dividends. The total recovery amount is about 130 billion won, successfully recovering more than the principal amount even before fully initiating the sale process.

Since J&PE has appointed a lead manager for the sale this time, they plan to send teaser letters to potential buyers both domestically and internationally soon. The market capitalization of HYUNDAI HYMS is approximately 700 billion won, and the market value of J&PE's equity is 370 billion won. If a management premium of 100% is applied, the selling price could approach approximately 740 billion won.