TPG Capital has agreed to acquire a 61.2 percent stake in Lotte Rental Co. for 1.31 trillion won, equivalent to $925 million, reviving the sale of South Korea's largest car rental company months after an earlier takeover attempt collapsed on antitrust grounds.
The deal follows the formal termination of a 15-month process involving Hong Kong-based private equity firm Affinity Equity Partners, which had sought a controlling stake in Lotte Rental. South Korea's Fair Trade Commission blocked that bid, citing market concentration concerns: Affinity had already acquired SK Rent-a-Car Co. the country's second-largest car leasing firm, 18 months prior. Lotte Rental and SK Rent-a-Car together hold between 20 percent and 40 percent of South Korea's car rental market, and the commission determined that consolidating both under a single owner would give it a dominant position in the sector.
For Lotte Group, the parent conglomerate, closing the deal is a liquidity priority. The stalled Affinity process had blocked a key divestiture, and the TPG agreement removes that obstacle.
The $925 million price implies a per-share valuation in the mid-₩50,000 range—a 20 percent to 30 percent discount to the earlier non-binding agreement with Affinity. That gap reflects a pattern in how global private equity firms approach South Korean assets differently than domestic bidders: TPG's valuation appears to weight future mobility-services revenue, while South Korean buyers have priced in regulatory risk and current operating realities more conservatively.
TPG's strategic plan centers on expanding Lotte Rental beyond conventional car rental into a broader mobility services platform. Following the acquisition of the controlling stake, TPG may launch a tender offer for the remaining minority shares—a move that could push total acquisition cost to approximately ₩2 trillion, or about $1.3 billion.
TPG has been active in South Korea. Earlier this year, the firm sold Samhwa Co. a cosmetics packaging specialist, to KKR for 800 billion won ($577 million).
