An Attractive Company up for Sale
Samsung Electronics and SK Group have thrown their hats into the ring for the acquisition of Doosan Solus.
Samsung Electronics has recently received a teaser letter containing information on the sale of Doosan Solulus. SK Group and the POSCO Group are also moving to take over the Doosan Group affiliate. Foreign PEs are reportedly on the list of potential buyers.
Doosan Group has begun to search for a buyer of Doosan Solus after stopping talks with Skylake, which was once regarded as the strongest potential buyer. Doosan and Skylake failed to agree on the price of Doosan Solus. Doosan judged that the whole stake in the Doosan Solus was worth at least 1.5 trillion won and it needed to receive over 200 billion won more than 600 billion won (for 51 percent stake) originally proposed by Skylake.
Doosan Solus produces two key items, organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) and copper foils and battery foils which are used for electric vehicle batteries. As such, it is clearly an attractive offer for large companies looking for future growth engine items. These large companies believe that Doosan Solus can create synergies with their battery business.
Doosan Solus produces battery foils and copper foils in anode. The electric vehicle copper foil market was worth 1.5 trillion won in 2018 but is expected to grow to 10.5 trillion won in 2025, market research firm SNE Research said.
The thinner a copper foil, the more competitive it is. Doosan Solus produces 6-micrometer (µm) copper foils that can be produced only by a very few companies. In addition, the company has a factory in Hungary, one of the world's leading production bases for the global automobile industry. Doosan Solus is the only company that produces copper foils in Europe.
M&A market experts predict that the price of Doosan Solus will rise as several big business groups are interested in acquiring it.