Crescendo Equity Partners, a private equity firm, has launched a direct management system for HPSP (403870), one of its core portfolio companies. Analysts say the move marks a full shift away from selling the management stake toward a strategy of enhancing corporate value through medium- to long-term ownership.
According to the investment banking (IB) industry on Friday, HPSP held an extraordinary shareholders' meeting the previous day and appointed Crescendo CEO Lee Ki-doo as an inside director. Immediately after the meeting, HPSP convened a board meeting and named him as the new chief executive officer. With former CEO Lee Chun-heung stepping down and outside director Park Tae-hong also resigning, HPSP's board and management have undergone a sweeping reshuffle.
In 2017, Crescendo acquired the semiconductor equipment division spun off from Poongsan, renamed it HPSP, and developed it into an equipment maker with unrivaled technology in the high-pressure hydrogen annealing field. In the early days of the acquisition, Lee briefly served as HPSP's chief executive officer (CEO) and laid the groundwork for management himself. Once operations got on track, he ran the company under a professional management system. HPSP later listed on the KOSDAQ market in 2022 on the back of its steep growth, and has now grown into a large-cap stock with a market capitalization exceeding 4 trillion won.
The market views Lee's move to the front line of management as a signal that Crescendo intends to directly lead HPSP's medium- to long-term value-up. Lee is regarded as an expert with experience in both the semiconductor industry and the investment industry. A Ph.D. holder from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he worked at Intel and McKinsey before co-founding Crescendo in 2012 with Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal and Palantir. He subsequently grew Crescendo into a firm specializing in technology company investments.
Crescendo had pursued a sale of HPSP's management stake from 2024, but recently changed course to long-term ownership. Early this year, it disposed of about 19% of its existing 39% stake through two block trades, securing 613.2 billion won in cash. It now remains the largest shareholder with a 20.46% stake. The IB industry expects Crescendo will not sell additional shares for the time being.
Some interpret Crescendo's governance shift as related to the semiconductor market's entry into a super-boom driven by the spread of the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. HPSP's earnings have somewhat stagnated over the past two to three years. Last year, it posted revenue of 173 billion won and operating profit of 89.9 billion won, recording a slight contraction from the previous year. As the global semiconductor market is currently expanding rapidly on an unprecedented scale, Crescendo is understood to have judged that now is the optimal timing to rebound HPSP's stalled earnings.
In fact, HPSP plans to broaden its current sales structure, which is limited to system semiconductor manufacturers, into the memory semiconductor sector such as DRAM and NAND flash. It is currently engaged in continuous discussions with global semiconductor companies aimed at expanding mass production of equipment.
Meanwhile, Crescendo has formally launched a sale of its management stake in AlphaPlus, accelerating its portfolio reshuffle. AlphaPlus is a display-related equipment maker founded in 2000, in which Crescendo secured a management stake in 2016. Crescendo has selected Samil PwC as the sale manager and is conducting behind-the-scenes contacts with potential buyers. The sale target is Crescendo's 89.17% stake in AlphaPlus. The market estimates the sale price at around 20 billion won.
