Private equity juggernauts bid for $758 million worth of KT Cloud shares

A number of private equity giants in South Korea and beyond are bidding for shares worth up to 1 trillion won ($758.2 million) in KT Cloud, a subsidiary of telecom behemoth KT Corp. 

New York-based KKR & Co. Inc., also known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., and Seoul-based PE firms such as IMM Credit & Solutions, part of IMM Holdings, and VIG Alternative Credit participated in the bidding on Tuesday. 

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. is rumored to be debating whether to join at the last minute. 

Sydney-based Macquarie Asset Management and Boca Raton-based DigitalBridge Group, Inc. did not partake in the latest round of bidding despite being shortlisted as preferred bidders. 

KT Cloud aims to raise its corporate value to above 4 trillion won through this round, although those familiar with the development said some institutional investors forecast the figure to exceed that mark. 

Ultimately, KT Cloud will select two to three investors who will secure a 20% stake in the cloud company.

KT Cloud is South Korea’s first cloud service provider and operates 14 internet data centers (IDCs). 

It spun off from the parent company KT’s cloud and internet data center business last April. The subsidiary has enjoyed continued hikes in revenue since then, thanks to the growing demand for digital transformation. 

In the cloud sector, it is the second largest player in Korea following Amazon Web Services and is the No. 1 player in the internet data center business. 

Write to Jun-Ho Cha, Chae-Yeon Kim at chacha@hankyung.com
Jee Abbey Lee edited this article.