Anchor Equity Partners (Anchor PE), a Hong Kong-based private equity fund (PEF), will invest 150 billion won in Dunamu, the operator of Upbit, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in Korea. This is attracting attention as it is the first case of a private equity fund investing in a domestic cryptocurrency business. According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 27th, Anchor PE acquired about 150 billion won worth of Dunamu shares. We bought stocks (old stocks) owned by existing investors, not newly issued stocks (new stocks).
The trading price per share is estimated to be around KRW500,000. Anchor PE is known to have paid attention to the growth potential of the cryptocurrency platform. A market official said, “I know that Anchor PE has taken away some of the stocks of existing shareholders such as Atinum Investment and Kakao Ventures.
Nevertheless, Anchor PE’s stake in Dunamu is only about 1%. This is because Dunamu has leapt to become a ‘decacon (startup with a corporate value of more than $10 billion)’ thanks to the cryptocurrency investment craze. According to ‘Seoul Trading Unlisted’ on the 27th, the recent trading price of Dunamu was 405,000 won per share. Considering the number of issued shares, the company value of about 14 trillion won is recognized only over the counter.
The IB industry pays attention to the fact that this is the first case of a private equity fund investing in a virtual currency platform company. As private equity funds are actively investing in minority equity, competition with venture capital is increasing. However, it was rare for private equity funds to invest in the so-called ‘new economy’, such as virtual currency, blockchain, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
This is because it has focused on strategies to reduce costs and increase efficiency by investing in the traditional heavy and heavy duty industry. Another market official explained about the investment, “It can be seen that the conservative private equity industry is starting to regard the cryptocurrency sector as a unique area.” Anchor PE was established in 2012 and is headquartered in Hong Kong. It is actively investing in North Asia and Korea, and the accumulated assets under management are approximately KRW 6 trillion. In Korea, it has invested in various industries such as food materials, waste, call centers, and contents. In 2019, they sold medicine wholesaler Ji-Young to Blackstone for 1 trillion won and recently sold their cafe franchise A Twosome Place to the Carlyle Group for 880 billion won.
Meanwhile, Dunamu is continuing its remarkable growth thanks to the craze of cryptocurrency investment. According to the company, cumulative sales up to the third quarter of last year were 2.82 trillion won and operating profit was 2.59 trillion won. This is more than 15 times higher than Ongi (sales of 176.7 billion won, operating profit of 86.6 billion won) in the previous year. Dunamu also acquired a minority stake in Woori Financial Group last year and joined as a partner of a traditional financial company. Various observations are raised about the promotion of Dunamu’s listing. However, the company said it has no concrete plans yet.
[강우석 기자 / 조윤희 기자]
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