E-Land Group has chosen U.S. private equity giant KKR as the preferred bidder for Kim’s Club, a 37-branch hypermarket franchise with annual revenue of around 1 trillion won ($860 million), it said Monday.

“KKR was most willing to invest in Kim’s Club,” the Korean retail group said. The two sides aim to sign a final contract in early May, the group said. KKR, one of the world’s biggest buyout funds, is to commence due diligence on Kim’s Club.


The deal, if sealed, would mark the second major takeover of a Korean retailer by a private equity group in less than a year, after MBK Partners, Korea’s biggest buyout fund, in September sealed a $6.3 billion deal to buy the Homeplus discount store chain from Tesco.

E-Land, facing a liquidity crunch, is also seeking to sell its flagship department store in Seoul’s posh Gangnam district to KKR. The two will continue talks for a possible sale of the Gangnam branch of New Core Department Store, E-Land said.

By Lee Sun-young (milaya@heraldcorp.com)