Aphrodite Acquisition Holdings has completed the stock purchase agreement (SPA) with Leguh Issuer Designated Activity Company (LIDAC), the former largest shareholder of Hugel, a botulinum toxin product maker.
Hugel’s shareholders approved it at an extraordinary meeting at the company headquarters in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, on Friday.
According to Hugel, LIDAC signed the SPA involving a change of the largest shareholders with Aphrodite Acquisition Holdings to transfer 5,355,651 Hugel shares (43.241 percent of total issued shares) and convertible bonds last August.
Aphrodite Acquisition Holdings is a multinational consortium consisting of Singapore-based global healthcare investment fund CBC Group, a special purpose company jointly invested by leading Korean conglomerate GS and Korean private equity fund IMM Investment, and Mubadala, a Middle East sovereign wealth fund.
The consortium said it would actively support Hugel by making the most of the consortium's business capabilities and network resources so that Hugel can grow into a global leading medical aesthetics company.
The company also approved a new board of directors during the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders.
The extraordinary shareholder meeting handled three agenda items -- appointment of new directors and independent directors who will become members of the audit committee and election of the audit committee members. All of the agendas received approval.
As a result, the company appointed key executives of CBC Group and GS Holdings as the new board of directors, including CBC Group CEO Wei Fu and CBC managing director of Korea and North America Michael Keyoung as non-executive directors, and GS Group's Senior Vice President Hur Suh-hong and senior managing director Lee Tae-hyung as key executives.
The company also appointed Patrick Holt, who will support Hugel's global market expansion based on his experiences in global healthcare companies such as Merck and Allergan in the U.S., and Professor Ji Seung-min, a certified public accountant and professor of accounting at Korea University, as outside directors.
"CBC has realized the growth and value enhancement of bio and healthcare portfolio companies by expanding their global markets and securing new pipelines," CBC managing director of Korea and North America Keyoung said. "With CBC's track record of helping our portfolio companies to expand geographically, we will work closely with the company's management team in its global expansion."
GS Senior Vice President Hur Suh-Hong also said, "Hugel has the competitiveness to leap forward as a global top tier medical aesthetics company based on proven products and excellent technology."
GS Group will actively support Hugel to achieve global success following its strategy to foster the bio sector as a new growth business, Hur added.
According to Hugel, the company is further widening the gap with its competitors in the Korean botulinum toxin (BTX) market, where it has been the largest market shareholder for the past six consecutive years, and the HA filler market, with its excellent quality and practitioner engagement programs.
The company distributes BTX products and HA fillers in over 30 countries worldwide.
"Hugel, which started as a Korean bio venture company, has grown rapidly into an aspiring global medical aesthetics company based on excellent products and engagement with healthcare practitioners," Hugel CEO Sohn Ji-hoon said. "This is Hugel's significant inflection point to become a true global leader in the medical aesthetics market with new shareholders."