Selloff
SK Innovation is accelerating its reform to tide over the current recession in the oil refining industry and enhance its financial soundness by means of business reorganization and the disposal of non-core assets.
In this context, the company announced on June 3 that it signed a contract with Enagas and Habanera to sell all of its 11.19 percent shares in Transportadora del Gas de Peru (TgP), a Peruvian gas transporter. Enagas is a Spanish energy company and Habanera is a Canadian subsidiary of CFI, which is a Peruvian investment company. The contract amount is US$251 million.
“The sale of the shares constitutes part of our asset portfolio readjustment, which will serve the purpose of oil development expansion,” said SK Innovation E&P President Kim Ki-tae. SK Innovation President Jung Chul-kil recently remarked that his company would dispose of assets not related to its main business. It is also in this vein that SK Innovation sold 100 percent of its shares in SK Petrochemical for approximately 29 billion won (US$26 million) last year.
As a result, SK Innovation’s net borrowing decreased from 8.1 trillion won (US$7.3 billion) to 6.8 trillion won (US$6.1 billion) between the end of last year and the end of the first quarter of this year. The company is planning to reduce the amount to at or below six trillion won by the end of this year.