CVC makes South Korean appointment

CVC Capital Partners has hired Randall Lee to join the firm’s Seoul-based South Korean team as a managing director.

Lee joins from a position as managing director at local firm Eugene Asset Management, but was previously a director at US firm Lone Star Advisors in Korea. He has 10 years of investment experience in South Korea, according to a CVC statement, and joins Brian Hong in the Seoul office.

CVC’s only current portfolio company in South Korea is WiniaMando, a manufacturer of climate control systems for commercial vehicles. CVC invested in the $210 million buyout of the firm in 2005.

The firm has previously completed five investments in the region: an investment in 2000 into pasteurised milk product manufacturer DM Foods; the acquisition in 2004 of the non-memory semiconductor business of Hynix Semiconductor, subsequently renamed MagnaChip Semiconductor; the acquisition of CJ CGV, a multiplex cinema chain, in 2002; and the buyout alongside Unitas Capital of Haitai Confectionery in 2001, which made 3x returns.

Eugene Asset Management, part of Korean construction conglomerate Eugene Group, is a 20-year-old investment company managing W30 billion ($24.3 million; €20.3 million) across the fixed income, real estate, and equity asset classes. Lee previously worked in the firm’s alternative investments group.

Since 1999, CVC has completed 32 investments worth a total of $19 billion in Asia across China, Southeast Asia, South Korea, Japan and Australia. It’s most recent transaction was the acquisition in May of the Asian business of Acument Global Technologies, in a deal worth more than $300 million in debt and equity. It also recently bolstered its Asian operations team with the appointment of Allen Han as a senior managing director based in Hong Kong in April.