[사진 = 마스터치]KL&Partners, a private equity fund (PEF) manager, is pushing for the sale of ‘Mom’s Touch’, a hamburger franchise. While McDonald’s and Burger King are also looking for a new owner in the domestic M&A market, Mom’s Touch is also on sale, and the landscape of the domestic franchise industry is expected to change. According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 28th, it was confirmed that the seller sent a teaser letter (investment prospectus) to major private equity funds and companies through a domestic accounting firm confirming their intention to take over.
The target of the sale is management rights of the company, including a 79% stake in ‘Korea F&B Holdings’, a special purpose company (SPC) established by KL & Partners for Mom’s Touch. It is said that the seller’s desired price is mentioned at the level of KRW 1 trillion.
KL&Partners started the sale process less than a month following Mom’s Touch voluntarily delisted from the KOSDAQ market last month. Mom’s Touch previously submitted an application for delisting through an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders on March 30th, and the company was delisted at the end of last month following deliberation by the Korea Exchange Corporate Review Committee. As part of investor protection measures, F&B Korea Holdings is purchasing over-the-counter stocks held by minority shareholders by December 1st, so the stake is expected to increase. KL & Partners, which acquired Mom’s Touch in December 2019, is now able to complete an investment recovery (exit) in three years. At that time, KL&Partners secured the National Pension Service and Saemaul Geumgo as major investors (LP) and acquired Mom’s Touch (then Haemaulo Food Service) for regarding 200 billion won. After being acquired by PEF, Mom’s Touch’s performance improved rapidly. Mom’s Touch recorded approximately 301 billion won in sales and 39.4 billion won in operating profit last year. Operating profit, which stood at 19 billion won in 2019, nearly doubled in two years.
However, it is burdensome that many of the same companies are on sale in the M&A market. Currently, Burger King, McDonald’s Korea, and KFC are looking for owners. In the case of Burger King, it started bidding earlier this year, but the process was temporarily suspended because there were no companies that wanted to take over. There is an opinion that the failure of the previous sale of the same type of company to be successful might have a negative impact on Mom’s Touch. KFC selected Samjong KPMG earlier this year and McDonald’s Korea recently selected Mirae Asset Securities as the lead manager for the sale, and is looking for potential candidates.
[조윤희 기자 / 강우석 기자]
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