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The
newspaper and another daily said U.S. private equity firms were
also bidding for NXC Corp, which controls Nexon.
Nexon founder Kim Jung-ju wants to sell a 98.64 percent stake in
NXC Corp that is held by him and related parties including his
wife. The deal could be worth as much as $9 billion, South
Korean media reports have said.
Netmarble and Kakao, both backed by Chinese social media and
gaming giant Tencent, have both shown an interest in securing
control of Nexon, South Korea's biggest gaming company.
Netmarble, Kakao, MBK Partners and Tencent declined to comment
on the reports.
A source familiar with the matter told Reuters that MBK Partners
planned to submit an initial bid for NXC, saying the deadline
was midday New York time (1700 GMT) on Thursday.
U.S. private equity firms KKR & Co Inc and TPG Capital
Management LP also submitted bids, Seoul Economic Daily said.
Korea Economic Daily listed Blackstone and Bain Capital among
the bidders.
People familiar with the matter told Reuters Blackstone had not
submitted a bid.
Blackstone was not immediately available for comment, while Bain
Capital, KKR and TPG Capital declined to comment.
Korea Economic Daily also said early February that Netmarble,
which controls more than a quarter of South Korea's mobile
gaming market, would partner with Tencent and MBK Partners in a
bid.
Reuters reported in January that Deutsche Bank and Morgan
Stanley were running the sale.
Deutsche Bank declined to comment on the reports, while Morgan
Stanley was not immediately available for comment.
(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin, Kane Wu and Heekyong Yang; Editing by
Muralikumar Anantharaman and Edmund Blair)
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