Private equity firm MBK Partners sealed its largest deal yet -- the purchase of Tesco’s Korean discount retail chain Homeplus for $6.4 billion. Now it must stem falling sales to make the deal pay off.
MBK and its consortium partners pledged on Monday to invest 1 trillion won in Homeplus, the second-largest chain of stores in Korea after E-Mart, over the next two years.
The stakes are high for the north Asia-focused private equity firm. MBK is committing slightly more equity than consortium partners Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Korea’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board and Temasek each of which is a limited partner in MBK...