SK Innovation to list battery unit 2025 at earliest

South Korean SK Innovation Co. does not expect to list its battery subsidiary until at least 2025, the company’s chief executive said on Thursday, amid ongoing speculations over an initial public offering of the unit.

SK Innovation’s executives including CEO and President Kim Jun have repeatedly said the company will not rush for an IPO of SK On Co. without mentioning a specific timeframe although its larger rival LG Energy Solution Ltd. became the country’s second-largest company by market capitalization when it went public in January.

“We will seek an IPO when it is fairly valued in the market,” Kim said in an annual general shareholders meeting.

“It is expected to show stable sales and sound operation of facilities and profitability improvement through earnings from 2025,” said Kim, predicting a listing after 2025.

In September last year, Kim has said the company would not hurry a listing, adding: “We will decide on an IPO at a proper time in consideration of capital costs as there are many other options for fundraising.”

PRE-IPO OR JOINT VENTURE

The company decided to raise money for battery production capacity expansions with a pre-IPO share sale and investment partnerships through joint ventures. SK On has been working to raise up to 4 trillion won ($3.3 billion) in the first half.

The world’s No. 5 maker of electric vehicle batteries has narrowed bidders for its shares to four candidates – BlackRock, The Carlyle Group, KKR and Singapore's GIC – people with knowledge of the matter said in February.

“The fundraising is smoothly underway,” Kim said. “We will continue to cooperate with global companies including JVs because we need a large amount of money to expand production capacity.”

Separately, SK Innovation aims to accelerate the development of new businesses such as battery recycling and energy storage system (ESS), Kim said.

“For the waste battery recycling business, we succeeded in operations of a demo plant earlier this year,” Kim explained, adding the company aims to build a factory for commercial operations.

It is also considering establishing a dedicated production line for the ESS business, Kim said.

Write to Jung-hwan Hwang at jung@hankyung.com
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.