Dongwon Tuna Closes on Purchase of StarKist

by Brendon Carr

This one’s a little braggy, but my partner Doil Son and our fine team of associates worked so hard on this deal it merits mention on Korea Law Blog.

Recently, among other events, we’ve been lucky enough to work on one of the major outbound investment deals: Hwang Mok Park PC advised Korean fishery company Dongwon Enterprise Co., Ltd. on the cross-border acquisition and financing of Dongwon’s US$360 million acquisition of US tuna brand StarKist from Del Monte Foods. Transaction finance was supplied by a syndicate of Korean and international banks arranged by Korea’s Hana Bank; the closing took place at the beginning of October, in the teeth of the global credit crunch. HMP’s team was led by corporate and securities partner Doil Son. The Hong Kong office of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP acted as international counsel to Dongwon.

Where we say that the closing took place in the teeth of the global credit crunch, we’re not fooling: This deal was due to close at the end of September, and from around the 20th things started to go pear-shaped with the syndicate arranged by Hana Bank. The scramble for replacement finance in the StarKist deal, due to nobody’s fault, meant very long days and nights for our team. But especially, my friend Doil worked like a dog and it bears mentioning: he did great work for Dongwon and I’m proud to work with a lawyer like him.

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