How Michael built the fortune
Michael Kim's wealth comes from private equity rather than from founding an operating business. In 2005 he left the Asian buyout arm of a large American investment firm and set up MBK Partners with a small group of colleagues. The idea was simple to describe and hard to execute: run a buyout fund led by Asian partners who knew the boardrooms, regulators and family owners of North Asia, instead of a regional office reporting to New York or Washington.
The firm raised successive funds from pension plans, sovereign investors and endowments, and its pool of committed capital grew into one of the largest dedicated to the region. As general partner, Kim and his fellow founders earn management fees and, more importantly, a share of the profits when investments are sold. Several large exits in the 2010s, including the sales of a consumer appliance rental company and a life insurer, generated substantial carried interest and established the firm's reputation with investors.
Not every deal has gone smoothly. The purchase of the Korean hypermarket chain Homeplus in 2015 was one of the largest buyouts in the country's history, and in 2025 the retailer entered court-led rehabilitation, drawing political scrutiny of MBK's role. The episode shows how concentrated bets in buyout investing can cut both ways.
The economics of the model explain why a buyout founder can accumulate so much. Each fund has a life of roughly ten years, and a successful exit early in one fund helps the firm raise a larger successor fund. MBK's growth from a single regional vehicle into a multi-fund platform meant that Kim's share of fees and profits rose with every new pool of capital the firm attracted.
Companies and holdings
Kim's main asset is his ownership interest in MBK Partners, which he chairs. Over the years the firm's portfolio has included:
- Coway, the water purifier and home appliance rental business, bought in 2013 and later sold to the game publisher Netmarble
- ING Life Korea, renamed Orange Life, which was acquired and later sold to Shinhan Financial Group
- Homeplus, the hypermarket and supermarket operator bought from Tesco
- Lotte Card, the credit card issuer acquired with a Korean partner
The firm also invests in Japan and China, typically taking control positions in businesses it believes can be run more efficiently or separated from larger conglomerates.
Beyond the firm itself, Kim's personal wealth is understood to be held largely through his interest in MBK and the capital he and his partners have committed alongside outside investors in its funds, a common practice that aligns a sponsor's returns with those of its limited partners.
Early life and career
Kim was born in South Korea and moved to the United States as a teenager, attending boarding school before enrolling at Haverford College in Pennsylvania. After graduating he went on to Harvard Business School, where he earned an MBA. His early career was spent in investment banking in New York and Asia, including work at Goldman Sachs and later Salomon Smith Barney, where he focused on deals in the region.
In the late 1990s, as the Asian financial crisis forced Korean groups to sell assets, Kim moved to the buy side and became president of Carlyle Asia, overseeing a series of acquisitions in Korea and elsewhere. That period gave him a track record and a network of investors, both of which he carried into MBK when he and several partners left to start their own firm. Alongside finance he has written fiction in English, an unusual sideline for a buyout executive.
Philanthropy and public life
Kim keeps a relatively low public profile for someone in charge of such a large investment firm, and his personal charitable giving is not widely documented. He has maintained ties with his alma mater Haverford College and is regularly cited in Korean media as one of the country's most influential financiers.
His public visibility rose sharply in 2025 when the Homeplus rehabilitation led to parliamentary hearings and questions about the responsibilities of private equity owners toward suppliers, employees and bondholders. MBK has said it would support the restructuring, and the case remains part of a broader Korean debate about the role of buyout funds in the economy.