April 19, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] LB Investment, a Korean private equity and venture capital firm, hit the jackpot with its investment in homegrown game maker Pearl Abyss.

According to The Bell on Dec. 26, LB sold all of its holdings in Pearl Abyss between Sept. 14 to reap 78.1 billion won (US$72 million) in November. The amount is almost 16 times its initial investment of 5 billion won. LB Investment had acquired the firm’s redeemable convertible preference shares three years ago. 

With the exit, LB Investment’s internal rate of return -- the standard metric used to determine the profitability of an investment -- reached 180 percent.

Pearl Abyss, the maker of the popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game “Black Desert,” debuted on the country’s secondary KOSDAQ on Sept. 14. “Black Desert” was launched in December 2014 and has become one of the most popular games in Japan, Russia, Taiwan and many other territories in Europe and North America.

By Park Ga-young (gypark@heraldcorp.com)