KKR pursues US$700 mil sale of Singapore's MMI to Chinese fund

HONG KONG (Feb 15): KKR & Co. is in advanced talks to sell Singapore’s MMI Holdings Ltd. to a Chinese investor group, people with knowledge of the matter said, as it pursues an exit more than a decade after buying the hard-drive component maker.

KKR is negotiating a sale of MMI, the oldest Asian investment listed in its portfolio, to a private equity fund affiliated with Beijing HBH Innovation Industry Fund, according to the people. A deal could value the company at around US$700 million ($920 million), including about US$400 million of debt, the people said. An agreement could be reached as soon as next month, one of the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.

The talks come as cloud computing drives demand for storage solutions. In the past few years, MMI has bolstered profit through multiple acquisitions, increasing automation capabilities and acquiring proprietary technology and patent rights, the people said. Any transaction would add to the US$23.9 billion of private-equity divestments in Asia over the past 12 months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

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