South Korean energy supplier SK Innovation Co and SK IE Technology Co have raised 2.25 trillion won (US$2 billion) in the battery material unit’s initial public offering, the country’s biggest in four years.
SK IE Technology has priced the offering at 105,000 won per share, the top of a marketed range, an exchange statement said yesterday.
The portion for institutional investors was 1,883 times oversubscribed. At US$2 billion, the initial public offering (IPO) of the maker of battery separators would be South Korea’s largest since mobile game-maker Netmarble Corp raised US$2.4 billion in 2017, data compiled by Bloomberg showed.
The shares had been marketed at 78,000 won to 105,000 won each, with SK Innovation selling 12.8 million shares and SK IE Technology selling another 8.6 million.
LATECOMER
SK Innovation, the energy and chemicals unit of South Korea’s third-largest conglomerate, SK Group, was a relative latecomer to the electric-vehicle battery industry, embracing the technology only as part of a diversification push.
The company began developing lithium-ion batteries for hybrid electric vehicles in 2005 and spun off the unit in April 2019.
Battery separators improve the output and stability of batteries.
EXPANSION PLANS
SK IE technology plans to use the IPO proceeds for capital expenditures related to capacity expansion in Poland and China, as well as for the upgrading and maintenance of its production facilities and equipment.
The company last month announced that it would spend 1.1 trillion won building new factories in Poland to meet growing demand amid an electric vehicle boom in Europe.
SK IE Technology’s IPO is being managed by Mirae Asset Securities Co and JPMorgan Chase & Co, assisted by Korea Investment & Securities Co and Credit Suisse Group AG. Its shares are expected to start trading on May 11.
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