À̹ÌÁö È®´ë South Korea¡¯s Doosan Group will auction off its controlling stake in Doosan Solus Co., a battery copper foil and OLED material making subsidiary, after it has failed to narrow price gap in a closed deal with SkyLake Investment.
Doosan Corp. will start a preliminary tender process for Doosan Solus next week, according to investment bank industry sources on Wednesday. The company is offering 50.48 percent stake in Doosan Solus to raise funds to aid Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co.
It reportedly has sent out invitations to candidates, including private equity funds. Samil PricewaterhouseCoopers is leading the sale.
The company had been in private negotiation over Doosan Solus with SkyLake Investment Co. But the deal broke after the PEF stuck to 700 billion won while Doosan wanted 1 trillion won ($808 billion).
Lotte Group is among the potential bidders along with several big PEFs.
Lotte has been strengthening chemical business by having Lotte Chemical Corp. acquire 4.7 percent stake in Showa Denko, a Japanese chemical company making materials for compound semiconductors. Lotte Aluminum, which makes aluminum foil used in electric and electronic industrial materials, is currently building a plant in Hungary to produce aluminum foil for secondary batteries.
À̹ÌÁö È®´ë Still, whether the open auction will go as planned is uncertain as many believe 1 trillion won, which is 30 times higher than the company¡¯s 2019 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITA), for a half of the company is too much.
Moreover, the company has no more stakes to offer.
The business side also may not be alluring as Doosan Solus has weak presence in global battery copper foil market.
The company reported an operating income of 10.1 billion won on sales of 69.9 billion won on a consolidated basis last year. With internal sales removed, the company earned 57 percent of its revenue from copper foil business and 43 percent from OLED material business.
The global elecfoil, a thin copper foil used in rechargeable batteries, market already has strong leaders, including Korea¡¯s Iljin Materials and SK Nexilis, while Doosan Solus trails far behind them. Doosan Solus¡¯s elecfoil business portfolio concentrates more on copper foil for electronic equipment, not for electric vehicle batteries, where the money is, said a market expert.
Doosan Solus shares ended Thursday down 3.31 percent at 39,450 won.
By Kang Woo-seok and Cho Jeehyun
[¨Ï Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]