'IMM Investment initiates its investment in 5G-related and data center industry by acquiring telecommunication operator, Dreamline'

IMM Investment Co. (”IMM”) announces that it has completed equity investment of KRW 82.5 billion in Dreamline Co., Ltd. (“Dreamline”), as the application to change its largest shareholder has recently been approved by the Ministry of Science and ICT. In January 2020, IMM signed a SPA with the seller and will deploy funds from ‘IMM Infra PEF VIII’ to acquire 90.5% of Dreamline’s stake.

Established in 1997, Dreamline is the 4^th largest telecommunication operator in Korea and owns over 57,000km of nationwide optical cable network. It mainly operates line leasing, communication tower, VoIP using internet network business. Its network and transmission facilities are based on nationwide highways and clustered near major metropolitan cities, such as Seoul and Busan.

IMM decided to acquire Dreamline for potential growth in domestic data center industry, increase in data traffic, as well as transition from 4G to 5G network. On October 2019, IMM initially invested KRW 24.5 billion in Dreammark1 Corp. (“Dreammark1”), subsidiary of Dreamline that operates internet data centers (IDC). As more data is expected to be processed with the advent of 5G, Big Data, Internet of Things (IoT), and Blockchain services, IMM hopes to realize synergy between Dreamline’s nationwide network and Dreammark 1‘s IDC business.

Moreover, recent transition from 4G to 5G network has called for the need for bigger sizes of communication towers. Compared to 4G LTE, these towers will handle stronger straightness of high frequency bandwidth used in 5G network and shorter wave distance.

IMM plans to appoint Mr. Ji Chang Yoo as Dreamline’s new CEO, who is an expert with more than 30 years of industry experience. He has served as a Director of Strategy at SK Telecom Network, Head of Infrastructure at SK Broadband, and CEO at SK Broadband Home & Service. He is widely acclaimed for expanding and stabilizing 4G LTE networks at SK Telecom.

While IMM will maintain Dreamline’s business on communication tower and line leasing, it will place an emphasis on expanding IDC business. High synergy effect is expected with IMM’s expertise on infrastructure investment and cooperation within its portfolio companies. Lastly, IMM is planning on raising additional funds to expand Dreamline and Dreammark 1’s business in near future.

About IMM Investment

Established in 1999, IMM Investment Corp (“IMM”) is a leading Korean alternative asset management firm focusing on venture capital, mezzanine, infrastructure and aircraft investments. Currently IMM is managing 33 funds with capital commitment of approximately USD 4 billion in total and USD 1.2 billion in infrastructure. IMM have over 50 professionals with extensive experiences in investment and management in Seoul, Japan and HK offices. IMM has built up its track record with the strong management team based on partnership, working to increase value of portfolio companies and distributed returns to LP investors.

 IMM Investment Contact