[Aju News DB]
SK Networks, a trading and retail arm of South Korea's third largest conglomerate, SK Group, expressed its interest Tuesday in joining a race to acquire Tongyang Magic, a lucrative kitchen appliance maker.
SK Networks said in a short regulatory filing that it was considering taking over Tongyang Magic, which has posted solid growth especially in its rental service with its net profit last year soaring to 17.6 billion won (15.9 million US dollars) from one billion won in the previous year.
The homegrown Glenwood-NH private equity consortium has put a 100 percent stake in Tongyang up for sale, sparking a bidding war that has attracted domestic and foreign strategic investors including Hon Hai Precision Industry of Taiwan, Affinity Equity Partners and IMM Private Equity.
The consortium took over the home appliance vendor in 2014 for 280 billion won.
Last week the CJ Group said it was considering taking over Tongyang Magic. CJ is South Korea's largest food and beverage conglomerate which has aggressively expanded its business portfolio through mergers and acquisitions.
SK Networks' move came weeks after anti-trust regulators rejected a request from top mobile carrier SK Telecom to acquire a major cable channel operator.
In an effort to bolster next-generation businesses for sustainable growth in the saturated and competitive domestic market, SK Telecom has offered to buy CJ Hellovision, a unit of retail giant CJ Group, with a plan to merge it with SK Broadband.
The Fair Trade Commission has opposed the one trillion won deal saying it would help SK Telecom strengthen its monopolistic control of the market.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlimi34@ajunews.com
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