A visitor looks at battery products during InterBattery exhibition held in COEX in southern Seoul on June 9, 2021. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Nov. 30 (Korea Bizwire) – SK On Co., the battery-making unit under South Korea’s SK Group, will raise up to 1.3 trillion won (US$985 million) from six local private equity funds, its parent firm said Wednesday, a move that will help the company secure funds before pushing for an initial public offering (IPO).
SK Innovation Co. said in a regulatory filing that its board approved the plan to pool 834.6 billion won from Korea Investment Private Equity and five other PEFs via a rights offering, with the remainder of the proposed amount to be approved in phases.
SK Innovation plans to sign a shareholders’ agreement with the PEFs, it said.
It had been widely speculated that SK On, which was split off from SK Innovation in October last year, had been in talks with potential long-term financial investors, to secure the funds for a pre-IPO financing.
Among the investors SK On was said to have tapped were Carlyle Group Inc. and BlackRock Inc., but the talks reportedly fell through.
SK Innovation CEO Kim Jun said earlier this year that the IPO was not likely to take place until after 2025.
SK On, which has remained in the red, is aiming for a turnaround by the fourth quarter of this year amid an aggressive overseas push.
The unit’s operating loss narrowed to 134.6 billion won from 326.6 billion won, as selling prices went up due to higher raw material costs.
Its sales reached 2.19 trillion won in sales in the third quarter, up 906.2 billion won from the previous quarter’s 1.28 trillion won.
(Yonhap)
