SK Innovation said on Thursday that it was planning to split off its battery business and commence an IPO.
Company president and head of batter business Ji Dong-seop said at an media event in Seoul that the company was planning to commence this process quickly to not miss the opportunity to receive investments.
He didn’t share a time line for the split off and IPO. Company CEO Kim Jun stressed that a lot of resources was needed to grow its battery business.
SK Innovation expects its battery business to record 3.5 trillion won in sales this year and over 6 trillion won in 2022.
The company said it expects the business to grow between 60% to 70% a year to record sales of between 15 trillion won to 20 trillion won in 2025. SK Innovation expects the business to record a profit based on EBITDA this year. The operation will turn profitable completely next year, the company said.
In terms of production, president Ji said the company currently has a production capacity of 40GWh a year. This will expand to 85GWh by 2023 and 200GWh by 2025. The company is aiming to increase to over 500GWh by 2030, Ji said.
SK Innovation’s current remaining order stood at over 1TWh, which was worth 130 trillion won, the president added.
The company will also expand its separator production capacity from its current 1.4 billion meter-square a year to 4 billion meter-square a year by 2025, it said.
CEO Kim also said the company will expand its recycling activities to reach net zero carbon emission faster.
SK Innovation will become a holding company and foster businesses to follow its current battery and separator businesses, Kim added.
