SEOUL, KOREA - PricewaterhouseCoopers Korea, the underwriter to a deal to sell off Posfine Co., Ltd., an affiliate of Korea's steel maker POSCO, said on October 20 that it has selected private equity fund firm Han & Co. as the preferred bidder held on the 14th as it offered the highest price.

 

An investment banker said, "Han & Co. offered terms such as the guarantee on the supply volume of steel slag to Posfine and input prices satisfactory to POSCO in addition to the offer price." It was reported the private equity firm will pay more than 30 billion won for the 100-percent stake in Posfine.

 

In the main bidding on October 14, eight contenders including Lafarge Halla Cement, Hanil Cement, Winsteel, Korea Cement, and Hankook Cement & Textile participated, in addition to Han & Co. Posfine was established in 2009 by POSCO to process steel slag, the byproduct in the steel-making process. The company produces slag powder from the slag supplied by POSCO's Gwangyang works and sell to cement manufacturers. POSCO's chairman Kwon Oh-Joon has pushed for restructuring of his group including sell-off of non-essential units since taking office in March this year.

 

Currently the largest shareholder of Posfine is POSCO with a 69.22-percent stake, with the remaining shares held equally by Ssangyong Cement Industrial, Tongyang Cement, and Lafarge Halla Cement with 10.26 percent each. Posfine posted 28.9 billion won in sales revenue and 3.7 billion won in operating profit last year