2026年韩国私人资本细分

Contents Market overview3 Institutional Research Group Dealmaking5 Ansel TanDirector, APAC Private Capitalansel.tan@pitchbook.com Exits16 Melanie TngResearch Analyst,APAC Private Capitalmelanie.tng@pitchbook.com Fundraising20 pbinstitutionalresearch@pitchbook.com Published on March 25, 2026 Market overview South Korea’s economy expanded at a measured pace in2025, with full-year GDP growth revised up to 0.9% by theAsian Development Bank, an improvement on the 0.8%projection issued in September, following stronger-than-anticipated Q3 performance driven by fiscal stimulus and apartial recovery in domestic consumption.1Export resilience,particularly in the semiconductor and electronics sector,acted as the primary tailwind, helping to offset persistentweakness in the property sector and subdued privateinvestment. Meanwhile, a November trade agreement withthe United States, which retroactively reduced US tariffs onautomobiles, auto parts, and other goods to 15%, alleviatedsome of the trade uncertainty that had weighed on businessconfidence earlier in the year.2Together with the recovery inglobal semiconductor demand driven by artificial intelligence(AI) infrastructure investment, these developments providedimportant support to Korea’s export-led industrial base. Despite the supportive public market environment, Korea’sprivate capital markets did not experience a comparablerecovery in 2025. Total private capital deal value acrossPE and VC declined to $16 billion from $24 billion in theprevious year. Aggregate PE deal value fell nearly 30%,although deal count increased slightly, reflecting a shift ininvestment activity toward middle-market transactions ratherthan a general contraction. VC deployment also declined,with $4.3 billion invested across 1,186 transactions. Seed-stage formation declined for the third consecutive year andthe gap between capital deployment and exit realizationwidened further. This divergence between public and private marketmomentum stems largely from structural pressures withinKorea’s private capital markets. Exit activity remainedsubdued across both asset classes amid persistent valuationgaps between buyers and sellers. The operating environmentfor domestic general partners also became more challengingfollowing the National Pension Service’s delay in launchingnew domestic private equity commitments amid politicalscrutiny following losses tied to the restructuring of MBK-owned retailer Homeplus.3The policy response that followed—including stricter regulatory oversight and proposalsto reduce maximum leverage ratios—further increaseduncertainty for private equity sponsors. Public equity markets staged a historic rebound in 2025,with the KOSPI surging more than 75%, marking its strongestannual performance in over two decades and the bestamong all major global indexes. The rally was driven largelyby Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, which togetheraccounted for roughly half of the KOSPI’s total marketcapitalization increase over the year. The tech-orientedKOSDAQ also posted an impressive 36% advance after asubstantial decline in 2024. Even so, Korea’s private capital market retains severalstructural characteristics that distinguish it within Asia-Pacific. In particular, the market is shaped by threeinstitutional pillars: chaebol restructuring that generates dealflow, state-backed venture capital that anchors early-stagefinancing, and the National Pension Service as the dominantinstitutional LP in private equity funds. The rally was also supported by a series of governancereforms aimed at addressing the “Korea Discount,” drivenby chaebol dominance, opaque governance, and weakshareholder returns. In 2024, the Financial ServicesCommission launched the Corporate Value-Up Programme,modeled on Japan’s reform agenda, which accelerated underthe Lee Jae Myung administration after the June 2025 snapelection. Amendments to the Commercial Act strengthenedfiduciary duties to shareholders, expanded cumulative voting,and mandated electronic shareholder meetings for large-listed firms. A cut in dividend tax rates from 45% to 14%-30% complemented these measures, reinforcing efforts toimprove capital efficiency and investor returns. For example, corporate restructuring among the country’slarge family-owned conglomerates, or chaebols, continuesto generate a steady pipeline of investment opportunities.The pace of chaebol restructuring has accelerated to levelsnot seen since the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis: A recentbusiness survey reported close to 90% of senior Korean dealmakers identified SK Group as the most likely M&Asource in 2026, with Lotte Group second at 81%.4Meanwhile,corporate carveouts represented almost 30% of buyoutsabove $100 million, marking the highest share of any regionalmarket. Korea’s concentrated industrial structure underpinsthis: The combined revenue of the five largest conglomeratesaccounts for approximately 50% of the total revenuegenerated by the country’s largest co