■ SKIET submitted registration statement on the 31^st and began public offering procedure to be listed in May

■ The company plans to make 30% of entire issued stock to public offering with corporate value up to KRW 7.5 trillion based on the offering price

■ SKI, SKIET secure up to KRW 2.3 trillion investment source through this offering

– Accelerating expansion of new businesses such as batteries, separators, etc.

■ CEO of SKIET Roh Jae-sok: “While laying the cornerstone to solidify the global lead through IPO, SKIET will strive to become a company that contributes to the growth of EV-related businesses.”

SK IE Technology (SKIET), a material business subsidiary of SK Innovation, submitted the registration statement to the Korean Financial Services Commission on the 31^st and is starting to proceed with public offering, aiming to be listed in the Korea stock market (KOSPI) in May.

SKIET held an extraordinary Board meeting on the 31^st and decided to issue 8.556 million new shares. On the same day, SK Innovation also held an extraordinary Board meeting and resolved to sell 12.834 million existing shares, which is 22.7% of SK Innovation’s current 90% stake in SKIET.

With this, SKIET’s public offering share becomes 21.39 million in total. This is 30% of the entire issued stock (after public offering). SKIET’s desired public offering price range per share is between KRW 78,000 and KRW 105,000. Based on this range, the corporate value goes up to roughly KRW 5.6 trillion to KRW 7.5 trillion.

SK Innovation and SKIET can secure a maximum of approximately KRW 2.3 trillion as an investment source if this public offering concludes successfully. The fund collected through this public offering will be used as an investment source to upgrade the new businesses SK Innovation is supporting, such as batteries, separators, etc.

The demand forecasting subject for investment organizations will be held in two days, from April 22^nd to 23^rd. With the final offering price settled through the forecasting, general investors’ subscriptions will begin on the 28^th and 29^th. Then, buying and selling are expected to commence on the stock market in mid-May.

Mirae Asset and JP Morgan are the book runners, and Korea Investment & Securities and Credit Suisse (CS) are co-lead managers of SKIET’s public offering. The offering consists of 55% institutional investors, 25% general investors, 20% employee stock ownership.

Producing and selling battery materials are among major businesses of SKIET. It has exceptional global power in manufacturing Lithium-ion Battery Separator (LiBS), an essential material for enhancing performance and securing the safety of batteries. SKIET takes the next-generation Flexible Cover Window (FCW), a type of transparent Polyimide Film (PI Film), as their next growth drive.

Following the raging demand for EV battery separators, SKIET recently invested KRW 1.13 trillion to build Plant 3 and Plant 4 in Poland. SKIET’s strategy is to preemptively invest in the global EV market’s core stage and improve its technology. When all plants in Korea, China, and Poland start operating in 2024, SKIET’s annual separator production capacity will reach up to 2.73 billion ㎡ in total.

SKIET gained good results last year in response to the market’s demand. According to the consolidated financial sheets of 2020, the sales were KRW 469.3 billion, up 78.4% from the previous year (reflected from the second to the fourth quarter of 2019 based on the time of division). Operating profit and net profit jumped 55.4% and 38.4% to KRW 125.2 billion won and KRW 88.2 billion, respectively.

According to the market research agency SNE Research, SKIET was ranked No. 1 in the world last year with 26.5% of shares in the Tier1 wet process separator market and is broadening its power in the premium separator market. Tier1 consists of leading automotive manufacturers in the very front of the EV market, such as Tesla, Volkswagen, Renault Nissan, Toyota, Hyundai Kia, etc. The Tier1 separator market is made up of businesses that provide separators to these companies. Including SKIET, companies capable of manufacturing high-quality separators such as Asahi Kasei and Toray of Japan are in this group.

SNE Research predicts that the Tier1 separator businesses’ share in the entire separator market will increase from 43% in 2018 to 63% in 2025.

“While laying the cornerstone to solidify the global lead through IPO, SKIET will strive to become a company that contributes to the growth of EV-related businesses,” said Roh Jae-sok, CEO of SKIET.

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SK IE Technology’s separator plant in Poland is under construction for expansion