Anna Jiwon Park has been covering the politics at The Korea Times since the summer of 2024, when she joined the press pool for the Office of the President in Korea. Prior to that, she spent about five years reporting extensively on financial markets, regulatory authorities and the financial industry. She joined The Korea Times in 2019 after spending eight years as a broadcast journalist at Arirang TV, Korea’s leading global broadcaster, covering politics, defense and culture.
Morgan Stanley tops M&A advisory market in Korea in Q1
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By Anna J. Park
By Anna J. Park
Morgan Stanley's Korea branch topped the list of the M&A advisory market during the first quarter. The U.S.-headquartered investment bank's lucrative Q1 results came from inking major deals, including the sale of local recruitment site JobKorea for 900 billion won ($800 million).
Morgan Stanley also led Match Group's $1.73 billion buyout deal of Korea-headquartered social networking company Hyperconnect, which operates global-based applications Azar and Hakuna Live.
According to the investment banking industry, the firm is expected to maintain the top position in the M&A advisory market in Korea throughout this year, as it is also participating in the sell-off of eBay Korea as well as the nation's second-largest food delivery platform Yogiyo.
Credit Suisse, last year's top performer in the advisory sector, took the second place during the first three months of this year, as the Switzerland-headquartered global financial firm managed Doosan Group's restructuring deals, including the selling of Doosan Infracore. The firm also advised a recently inked deal of Hoban E&C's buying of Taihan Electric Wire's 40 percent stake for 251.8 billion won ($222 million).
Citigroup Global Markets took the third position in the M&A advisory sector, as it led SK Group's $1.6 billion capital investment in Plug Power, a U.S.-based hydrogen fuel cell solutions provider. The investment banking unit of Citigroup is also managing a sale of minority stakes of SK lubricants, a petroleum unit of SK Group.
Local brokerage firms Samsung Securities, NH Investment & Securities and UBS lagged behind their foreign competitors as they took the seventh, eighth and ninth places at the local M&A advisory market during the first quarter.