[THE INVESTOR] The Seoul Central District Court has chosen UAMCO as the preferred bidder to take over Young Hwa Construction and Engineering, according to news reports on Oct. 11.

UAMCO, an asset management jointly set up by local banks that specializes in non-performing loans, will sign a memorandum of understanding later this week, and will create a project fund to finance the deal estimated to be between 50 billion won (US$44.51 million) and 60 billion won. 
Young Hwa C&E is owned by Young Hwa Holdings, a wholly owned special purpose corporation of MBK Partners, the country’s largest private equity firm. MBK bought the entire stake of the company for 100 billion won in 2009.

The leading steel structure manufacturer, however, has been on the decline since 2012 and filed for court receivership in February. When it became available for merger in June, UAMCO and Keystone Private Equity participated in the final bid.

By Hwang You-mee (glamazon@heraldcorp.com)