CVC names ex-Affinity Equity top manager as Korea head
Jun-ho Cha
May 07, 2021 (Gmt+09:00)
CVC Capital Partners has appointed Chris Rhee, a former partner of Affinity Equity Partners, as its Seoul office head and global partner, according to the London-based private equity firm on May 7.
During his stint at Hong Kong-based Affinity, Lee had made headlines with 1.2 trillion won ($1 billion) in gains from the exit of Korea's Loen Entertainment, or six multiple returns, in two and a half years. It sold a majority stake in the music streaming service to mobile platform Kakao Corp. for 1.9 trillion won in 2016.
Rhee, 47, had also spearheaded investments in the e-commerce spin-off of Shinsegae Inc., SSG.Com and the food storage maker Lock&Lock.
After graduating from Yale University and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, he had worked as a senior consultant at PwC and an executive director of UBS Investment Bank.
He replaced Chung Myung-hoon who has just moved to one of CVC's portfolio companies -- Yeogi Eottae, a hotel and mobile-ticket booking platform -- as CEO.
CVC said in a statement that "Korea is central to CVC’s plans in Asia as the team is a strong pipeline and are actively pursuing a number of interesting opportunities with the appointment of Chris Rhee."
CVC manages $161.9 billion in assets with 23 offices around the world. Its fifth Asia-focused fund raised $4.5 billion at its final close in April last year, which has executed $1.5 billion worth of investments in eight deals so far.