The tender for a full stake in EMC Holdings Co., South Korea’s top waste water treatment company, has drawn multiple bidders from home and overseas, raising the likelihood of the deal matching the hopeful 1 trillion won ($843 million).

According to investment banking sources on Sunday, SK Engineering & Construction (SK E&C), Goldman Sachs Principal Investment Area (Goldman Sachs PIA) and Singapore’s Keppel Infrastructure Holdings have been confirmed to have submitted final bids for a full stake in EMC Holdings offered by Affirma Capital.

Affirma Capital and its sale advisor Citi Global Market Securities plan to pick up a preferred bidder within the month.

SK E&C and Goldman Sachs PIA are dubbed strongest candidates, industry insiders say.

EMC Holdings is a total environmental management platform running more than 2,000 sewage and waste water treatment facilities and four incinerators across the country. Once under state-owned Korea Environment Corporation, the company became privatized through sale to Kolon Group in 2007. Affirma Capital acquired the company, formerly Kolon Water & Energy, in 2016 and renamed it into EMC Holdings with six smaller companies under its arm.

EMC Holdings posted a consolidated operating profit of 45.3 billion won last year, with sales of 380.9 billion won.

The buyer is expected to easily raise 1 trillion won for the company with monopolized status in a market with high barrier in entry.

By Kang Woo-seok, Park Jae-young and Lee Ha-yeon

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]