Dutch electronics giant Philips has expressed an interest in taking over Seoul-based private equity fund MBK Partners’ share in, Coway, South Korea’s top water purification maker.

In 2013, MBK Partners stepped in and bought a 30.9 percent stake in Woongjin Coway Co. from the then cash-strapped Woongjin Group for about 1.2 trillion won. MBK renamed the company Coway.

In August, MBK tapped Goldman Sachs to manage the sale of their stake in Coway, which is now estimated at 3 trillion won (US$ 2.52 billion).

“Recently, Philips asked for detailed information on the planned stake sale and they were sent as requested,” an industry source close to the matter told Korea’s Yonhap New Agency.

MBK has been featured prominently in the news recently for their acquisition of Tesco’s South Korean Homeplus division for $6.1 billion –the largest sale of its kind in Korean history.