Medipost Changes Major Shareholder to Private Equity Fund... Secures Momentum for North American Market Entry

Exterior view of Medipost headquarters in Pangyo, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi Province (Photo by Medipost)

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] Medipost has attracted an investment worth 140 billion KRW involving a change of major shareholders with Skylake Equity Partners and Crescendo Equity Partners. Yang Yoon-sun, the founder of the company and the existing largest shareholder, will maintain her position as the second-largest shareholder and continue to participate in management while retaining her role as CEO.

Medipost announced on the 17th that it signed a contract on the 16th regarding the change of management rights. The contract involves the transfer of a total of 4,143,140 shares to subsidiaries or affiliates of Skylake and Crescendo, combining 400,000 Medipost shares held by CEO Yang Yoon-sun and 3,740,314 voting convertible preferred shares newly issued through a third-party allotment.

Specifically, subsidiaries or affiliates of Skylake and Crescendo will purchase CEO Yang’s shares by dividing them, and the 140 billion KRW investment will be made in two installments of 70 billion KRW each. First, Skylake and Crescendo will jointly invest 70 billion KRW in convertible bonds (CB). Subsequently, when the investment contract with a North American cell and gene therapy (CGT) contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) company, with which Medipost is currently conducting exclusive negotiations aiming for May, is finalized, an additional acquisition of 70 billion KRW worth of voting convertible preferred shares (CPS) will proceed.

Once all contracts are completed, the shareholding ratio of Skylake and Crescendo in Medipost will rise to 20.7%, while CEO Yang’s stake, which was 6.2%, is expected to fall below 5%. Furthermore, if the convertible bonds are converted into common shares, the shareholding ratio of Skylake and Crescendo is expected to increase further. The investment shares by Skylake and Crescendo will be subject to a one-year lock-up at the Korea Securities Depository.

Yang Yunsun, CEO of Medipost

Medipost plans to accelerate its entry into the North American market using the funds secured this time. It will invest 85 billion KRW in the North American CGT CDMO company and 55 billion KRW in U.S. clinical trials for knee osteoarthritis treatments such as 'Cartistem' and 'SMUP-IA-01' to speed up its entry into the U.S. osteoarthritis treatment market.

A Medipost official said, “Securing a major shareholder who can actively support overseas business is significant as it lays the foundation to maximize corporate value through aggressive overseas business expansion. The rapidly growing CGT CDMO business is not only an optimal new business that can create synergy with our core competencies but also holds important strategic significance as a North American production base.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.