SK innovation has achieved success in its recent rights issue by raising nearly 10 trillion won (US$7.51 billion) as it takes steps to secure future growth opportunities.
SK innovation announced on Sept. 15 that it had received 9.56 trillion won in subscription deposits for its public offering, which had a total value of 1.04 trillion won and was open to retail investors for two days starting on the 14th. The subscription competition ratio for this offering stood at 67.77 to 1. The offering was conducted for 1,013,360 shares of common stock.
Earlier, SK innovation recorded a subscription rate of 87.66 percent in its subscription offering held from the 11th to the 12th, targeting the employee's stock ownership association and existing shareholders, with a total subscription of 7,179,664 shares, including oversubscription of 295,806 shares, out of the total offering of 8,190,000 shares. Considering the issuance price of 139,600 won per new share, it can be noted that the company has already secured over 1 trillion won in funds from the employee's stock ownership association and existing shareholders.
SK innovation said, “Its positive market evaluation was influenced by its diversified portfolio, which includes subsidiaries in the fields of petroleum refining, chemicals, electric vehicle batteries, and lubricants. This diverse and stable yet high-growth portfolio contributed to the positive response in the rights issue subscription.”
SK innovation has expressed its intention to proactively secure future growth opportunities by utilizing over 70 percent of the funds raised from the rights issue, which amounts to 827.7 billion won, in investments in the future energy sector and the establishment of research and development (R&D) infrastructure to support it. The remaining 315.6 billion will be allocated for financial structure improvement.
SK innovation explained that it had initially planned to allocate 350 billion won for financial structure improvement when the rights issue plan was announced in June. However, the company decided to use the portion reduced due to changes in the issuance price for debt repayment to maintain the size of future investments.
The new SK innovation shares issued through this rights issue will be listed on the stock market on the 5th of next month.