Yonhap
Yonhap


LG Energy Solution Ltd. (LGES) is expected to raise 12.75 trillion won ($10.7 billion) this month in what will be Korea’s largest-ever initial public offering (IPO).

South Korean battery maker said in a regulatory filing Friday it set the IPO price at 300,000 won per share, the top end of a 275,000 won to 300,000 won range it initially offered.
The blockbuster listing, set for Jan. 27, will mark the biggest ever market debut by a company in the country, more than double the value of Samsung Life Insurance Co.’s 2010 IPO of 4.89 trillion won, the largest to date.
The IPO will value LGES at 70.2 trillion won, making it the third-largest listed company on the main KOSPI stock exchange, behind two South Korean tech bellwethers ― Samsung Electronics and SK hynix.
LGES is offering 34 million new shares and 8.5 million existing shares held by parent firm LG Chem in the IPO.
In the two-day book building conducted earlier this week, institutional investors placed bids worth 1,520 trillion won, LGES said in a press release. According to Friday’s filing, the competition ratio for the book building was 2,023.37 to 1.
Of the collected bids, 77.4 percent of the investors agreed to a lock-up, which bans them from selling off any allotted shares for up to six months after the IPO.
LGES, the world’s second-largest electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturer after China’s CATL, said in regulatory documents it plans to spend 8.84 trillion won to boost domestic and overseas production.

The company said its joint venture with General Motors operates a plant in Michigan and it is building two others in Ohio and Tennessee. Its European plant is based in the Polish city of Wroclaw.
The battery maker also has partnered with global carmaker Stellantis N.V. to build a battery plant in North America.
LGES CEO Kwon Young-soo said in a press conference this week his company could overtake CATL in global market share, citing its strength in intellectual properties and the diversity of its foreign client pool.
The company, whose key clients include Volkswagen, Tesla and Hyundai Motor, has a cumulative order backlog worth about 260 trillion won. (Yonhap)


LG Energy Solution to raise 12.75 trillion won in Korea’s largest-ever IPO
Source: Buhay Kapa PH