September 30, 2023

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A consortium led by cosmetics-to-airline conglomerate Aekyung Group and two other consortia have submitted final bids for Asiana Airlines, industry sources said Nov. 7.

The Aekyung-Stone Bridge Capital consortium, the HDC-Mirae Asset Daewoo consortium and the consortium of Korea Corporate Governance Improvement and BankerStreet have submitted their final bids to Credit Suisse, the sole lead manager of the deal, a person familiar with the deal told Yonhap News Agency. 

Aekyung Group and KCGI confirmed they have participated in the final auction.

In the initial auction held in September, Aekyung, the HDC-Mirae consortium, KCGI and Stone Bridge Capital made it onto the shortlist. Last month, Aekyung and Stone Bridge formed a consortium, and KCGI joined hands with the BankerStreet private equity fund.

The Aekyung-led and HDC-led consortia are likely to be the main competitors to acquire a 31 percent Asiana stake, certain new shares to be issued and the airline‘s six affiliates in a package deal, an airline official said.

If the KCGI-BankerStreet consortium comes up with a strategic investor such as SK Group or GS Group, it will emerge as third powerful candidate in terms of capital position, he said.

By Ram Garikipati and newswires (ram@heraldcorp.com)