Buyout Billionaire Kim Wins Court Fight Over Arrest Bid

Michael ByungJu Kim on Jan. 13.Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg

Michael ByungJu Kim won a key victory after a South Korean court rejected prosecutors’ request to detain the billionaire co-founder of buyout firm MBK Partners Ltd. as part of a probe into the firm’s management of supermarket chain Homeplus, which entered court-led rehabilitation last year.

South Korean prosecutors are investigating Kim and three others on charges including fraud, examining how Homeplus slid from being the nation’s second-largest retailer into financial distress and eventual rehabilitation.